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R E PORT 


( >  F    T  1 1  E 


INTERNATIONAL 


Council  ofWomen, 


ASS  EM  1!  I.  B  I)     B  V    T  II  E 


National  Woman  Suffrage  Association, 


WASHINGTON,   D.   C, 


r.  S.  OF  AMERICA, 


March  25  to  April  1,  1888. 


Condensed  from  the  Stenographic  Report  made  by  Mary   F.  Seymour  and  Assistants,  for 
The  Woman's  TRIBUNE,  published  daily  during  the  Council. 


NATIONAL  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  ASSOCIATION, 


WASHINGTON,  O.  C: 
RUPUS    H.    DARBY,    PRINTER. 

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f^f*    OP   TUB  xr- 

[UITIVBRSIT' 


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PRICE  OF  REPORT. 

Unbound  copy,         ........  50  cts. 

"  "      sent  by  mail,    .  .  .  .  .  .  .      60    " 

Bound  copy  (engraving  of  Lucretia  Mott),  .  .  .  .  75    " 

"  "  "      sent  by  mail,       .  .  .90    " 

For  sale  in  :  JV  ^33 

Boston — At  Office  of  Woman's  Journal,  3  Park  street. 

New  York— Office  of  Mary  H.  Seymour,  38  Park  Row  (Potter  Building). 

Washington,  D.  C. — From  Mrs.  Jane  H.  Spofford  (Treasurer  of  N.  W.  S.  A.), 
Riggs  House. 

Philadelphia— From  Rachel  G.  Foster  (Cor.  Sec'y  of  N.  W.  S.   A.),   748 
N.  19th  street. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Origin  of  Council,  .........      9 

Thk  Cai.l,  .........  10 

The  Programme,      .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .11 

Hymns,       ..........  19 

Reception  to  Officers  and  Delegates,  .  .  .  .  .23 

March  25 — Sunday  Afternoon— Religious  Service,         .  .  .    24-29 

Sermon,  The  Heavenly  Vision,  Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw,   .  .    24 

March  26— Morning  Session — Formal  Opening  of  The  Council,  .    30-50 

Council  Called  to  Order  hy  Miss  Anthony,  .  .30 

Address  of  Welcome,  Mrs.  Stanton,    ....         31 

Reading  of  Letters  and  Telegrams  of  Greeting,         .  .    39 

S 
Introduction  of  Foreign  and  American  Delegates,  .  44 

Reading  of  List  of  Associations  Represented  at  the  Coun- 
cil,         .            .            .            .            .            .            .   .  .     49 

Announcement  of  Committee  on  Organization,        .  50 

March  26 — Evening  Session — Education,          ....  51-82    • 

Higher  Education  for  Women  in  the  United  States,  May 

Wright  Sewall,     .            .                       .            .  51  ^ 

The  Women  of  India,  Pundita  Ramabai  Sarasvati,       .  .     63 
The  Kindergarten  in  Its  Development  of  Faculty,  Sarah 

B.  Cooper,   .......  67 

Retrospection,  Louisa  Reed  Stowell,      .            .            .  .72 

Co-Education,  Rena  A.  Michaels,        ....  75 

College  Fellowships  for  Women,  Cora  A.  Benneson,  .  77 
Institutive  Power,  Martha  McLellan  Brown,  .  .  80 
March  27 — Morning  Session — Philanthropies,  .  .  .  83-109 
What  Unitarian  Women  are  Doing,  Isabel  C.  Barrows,  83 
Woman  as  a  Missionary,  Jennie  Fowler  Willing,  .  .  86 
Report  of  Western  Women's  Unitarian  Conference,  Vic- 
toria M.  Richardson.      *           .           -          t           4  88 


iv  Table  of  Contents. 

March  27 — Adams,  Laura  McNeir,         .  .  .  .  .  .88 

Prison  Reform  Work  of  St.  Lazare,  Paris,  Madame  Isa- 
bella Bogelot,  ......     90 

Hospitals  Managed  by  and  for  Women,  Ednah  D.  Cheney,        95 
Missionary  Work,  Harriet  N.  Morris,     .  .  .  .98 

The  Work  and  Objects  of  the  Woman's  National  Indian 

Association,  Amelia  S.  Quinton,         .  .  .  100 

The  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  E.  Florence  Barker,      .  .     101 

TnE  Red  Cross,  Clara  Barton,  ....  103 

Women's  Relief  Associations,  Emily  S.  Richards,      .  .     107 

March  27 — Evening  Session — Temperance,  ....  110-128 

Women  in  Temperance,  Frances  E.  Willard,  .  .110 

World's  Woman's  Temperance  Union,    Hannah    Whit- 
all  Smith,  .  .  .  .  .  .114 

Toronto  W.  C.  T.  IT.,  Bessie  Starr  Keeper,      .  .  .     116 

How  to  Reach  the  Children,  Anna  Gordon,  .  .  118 

The  Neglected  Rich,  Frances  E.  Harper,        .  .  .119 

Police  Matrons,  Susan  H.  Barney,    ....  120 

National  Temperance  Hospital,  Dr.  Mary  Weeks  Bur- 
nett,    ........     123 

The  Temperance  Temple,  Matilda  B.  Carse.         .  .  125 

Our  Reasons,  Mary  H.  Hunt,         .....     127 

March  28 — Morning  Session — Industries,  .....  129-164 

Industrial  Gains  of  Women  During  the  Last  Half-Cen- 
tury, Mary  A.  Livermore,  .....     131 

Women  in  the  Grange,  Anna  M.  Worden,     .  .  .  137 

Women  in  the  Knights  of  Labor,  Huldah  B.  Loud,     .  .     143 

The  Working  Women  of  To-Day,  Helen  Campbell,  .  146 

Co-Operation,  the  Law  of  the  New  Civilization,  Lita 

Barney  Sayles,  ......     152 

What  the  Knights  of  Labor  are  Doing  for  Women, 

Leonora  M.  Barry.  .....  153 

Women  as  Farmers,  Esther  L.  Warner,  .  .  .     156 

Story  of  the  Lowell  Offering,  M.  Louise  Thomas.  .  161 

Communication  from  the  Federation  of  Labor  Unions,         .     163. 


Table  of  Contents.  v 

March  28— Evening  Session— Professions,  ....  165-188 

Women  as  Educators,  Prof.  Rena  A.  Michaels,  .  .  165 

Woman  in  Journalism,  Laura  C.  Hollow  ay,  .  .  167 

Woman  in  Medicine,  Dr.  Sarah  H.  Stevenson,  .  .  .  169  — 

Woman  in  Law,  Ada  M.  Bittenbender,         .  .  .  178 

Woman  in  the  Ministry,  Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles,   .  .  .  180 

Report  of  Woman's  International  Press  Association, 

Martha  R.  Field,  .....  181 

Women  in  Journalism,  Marion  A.  McBride,       .  .  .  183 

An  Idea  and  its  Results,  Aurelia  H.  Mohl,  .  .  184 

Woman  and  Finance,  Matilda  B.  Carse,  .  .  .  186 

Mai  (ii  29 — Moaning  Session — Organization,         ....  189-225 

The  Power  of  Organization,  Julia  Ward  Howe,         .  .  189 

Address  on  Organization,  Mary  F.  Eastman,  .  .  195 

Work  of  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union, 

Abby  Morton  Diaz,   ......  198 

Report  of  Free  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  Marilla  .M. 

Hills, 200 

Report  of  Danish  Woman's  Union  for  the  Protection  of 

Young  Girls  and  Lonely  Women,  Ada  M.  Fred- 

ERIKSEN,         .......  200 

The    Danish   Woman's    Association,    Kirstine    Freder- 

iksen,    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  203 

Woman's  Education  in  Denmark.  Ada  M.  Frederiksen,  206 

Woman's  Condition  in  Italy,  Fanny  Zampini  Salazaro,         .  208 

The  Work  of  Sorosis,  M.  Louise  Thomas,      .  .  .  215 

Women's  Clubs,. Jennie  C.  Croly  ....  217 

The  Woman  Movement  in  Germany,        ....  219 

Address  on  Organization,  May  Wright  Sewall,     .  .  220 

Address  on  Organization,  Frances  E.  Willard,         .  .  222 

March  39— Evening  Session— Legal  Conditions,  .  .  .  226-245 

Leo  a  r.  Disabilities,  Lillie  Deverecx  Blake,    .  .  .  226 

Legal  Conditions  of  Women  in  the  Three  Kingdoms, 

Alice  Scatcherd,       ......  229 

Legal  Conditions  of  Indian  Women,  Alice  C.  Fletcher,     .  237 

Law  in  the^Family,  Matilda  Joslyn  Gage,        .  .  .  241 


vi  Table  of  Contents. 

March  29— Address  by  Lucy  Stone,              .....  241 

March  30— Morning  Session— Social  Purity,      ....    246-291 

The  Truth  Shall  Make  You  Free,  Elizabeth  Lisle  Saxon,  248 
The  International  Federation   for  the  Abolition  of 

State  Regulation  of  Vice,  Anna  Rice  Powell,              .  252 

Letter  from  Josephine  Butler,          ....  257 

Address  on  Social  Purity,  Laura  Ormiston  Chant,    .            .  264 
The  Moral  Education  Society  of  Boston,  Caroline  M. 

Frazar,  .  .       »    .  .  .  .  .272 

The  Starting  Point,  Dr.  Caroline  B.  Winslow,     .            .  2/3 

Address,  Social  Purity,  Harriette  R.  Shattuck,       .            .  276 

The  Women  of  Norway,  Sophia  Magelsson  Groth,           .  278 

Address,  Clara  Cleghorne  Hoffman,     ....  283 

Paper,  Marriage  Reform,  Lucinda  B.  Chandler,              .  284 

Address,  Frances  E.  Willard,     .....  286 

Letters,     ........  289 

March  30 — Evening  Session — Political  Conditions,    .        .  .         292-321 

The  Constitutional  Rights  of  Women  in  the  United 

States,  Isabella  Beecher  Hooker,           .            .            .  292 

Women  in  Politics,  J.  Ellen  Foster,             .            .            .  304 
Political   Parties  and  Woman  Suffrage,   Harriet  H. 

Robinson,         .......  306 

School  Suffrage  in  Massachusetts,  Martha  A.  Everett,  309 

School  Suffrage,  Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw,        .            .            .  311 

The  Flag  at  Half-Mast,  Anna  Randall  Diehl,          .            .  313 

Municipal  Suffrage,  Laura  M.  Johns,           .            .            .  315 

Address,  Ellen  M.  S.  Marble,      .....  318 

Address,  Frances  E.  Willard,            .            .            .            .  319 

March  31 — Morning  Session — Conference  of  Pioneers,     .  .         322-368 

Address,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton.    ....  322 

Song,  John  W.  Hutchinson,           .....  326 

Address,  Frederick  Douglass,            ....  327 

Lucy  Stone,         ......  331 

Henry  B.  Blackwell,          ....  335 

Rev.  Antoinette  B.  Blackwell,        .            .            .  340 

Robert  Purvis,      .                          ...  342 


Table  of  Contents.  vii 

March  31 — Address,  Mary  Grew,         ......  344 

"         Matilda  Joslyn  Gage,         ....  347 

"         Hon.  Samuel  C.  Pomeroy,         ....  348 

"         and  Poem,  Grace  Greenwood,        .            .'         .  353 

Letters  from  Pioneers,      ......  357 

March  31— Evening  Session — Political  Conditions,      .  .  .  369-399 

Sex  in  Brain,  Helen  Gardener,               ....  369 

Woman  Suffrage  in  England,  Mrs.  Abhton  Dilke,           .  382 

Woman's  Work  in  Finland,  Alexandra  Gripenberg,       .  388 

Address,  Zadel  B.  Gustafson,      .....  394 

Sentimentalism  in  Politics,  Clara  Neymann,                    .  398 
April  1 — Afternoon  Session — Religious  Symposium,          .            .         400-424 
Woman  in  the  Early  Christian  Church,  Matilda  Joslyn 

G.\(iK,             .......  400 

What  Religious  Truths  can  be  Established  by  Science 

and  Philosophy,  Rev.  Antoinette  B.  Blackwell,  407 

God  is  Love,  Elizabeth  Boynton  Hakbert,      .            .  415 

Address,  Isabella  Beecher  Hookek,             .            .            .  418 

The  Power  of  Thought,  Elizabeth  G.  Stuaut,            .            .  420 

Address,  Ednah  D.  Cheney,     .            .            .            .            .  420 

Frances  E.  Willakd,      .....  422 

April  1 — Evening  Session — Close  of  the  Council,         .  .  .  425-438 

Address,  Madame  Isabelle  Bogelot,         ....  425 

Alli  Trygg,       ......  425 

The  Moral  Power  of  the  Ballot,  Zerelda  G.  Wallace,        .  428 

Closing  Address,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,   .            .            .  431 

Letters,       ..........  439 

Report  of  Committee  of  Arrangements,    .....  447 

Committees  of  Council,  ........  456 

Social  Events  of  the  Week,            ......  457 

Appendix,     ..........  459 

Index,    ..........  401 


Page      9.    For  Miss  Helen  Bright  Clarke,  read  Mrs.  Helen  Bright  Clarke. 
30.    For  Monday,  March  25,  read  March  26. 
34.    For  eventually  (line  lOi  read  essentially. 

49.  For  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  read  World's  Woman's  Tem- 
perance Union. 

50.  The  list  of  AstWs  represented  should  i«rfw<fe,  New  England  Hospital  for  Women 
and  Children.    Delegate,  Mrs.  Ednah  D.  Cheney. 

93.    In  second  line  read  de  for  du. 
1 14.    See  erratum  page  49. 
145.    Bead  Paine  lor  Payne. 
166.    Bead  Louise  Beed  Stowell  for  Bead. 
165  and  181.    Bead  Dioteme  for  Diatema  and  for  Diotema. 

313.    In  line  7  read  "which  they  say  we  women"  for  "which  we  say  we  women." 
318.    In  line  8  read  Marcus  Agrates  for  Lyssipus. 
343.    In  line  4  read  Mr.  Blackwell  for  Mrs.  Blackwell. 
356  and  364.    Bead  Chace  for  Chase. 

407.    Bead  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell  for  Antoinette  L.  Brown. 
455.    In  foot  note  read  Emily  S.  for  Jane  S.  Bichards. 
458.    Bead  Dr.  Ewing  Whittle  for  Whipple. 


RE PORT 

OF  THE 

INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  OF  WOMEN. 


Visiting  England  and  France  in  the  spring  of  1882,  Mrs.  Stan- 
ton conceived  the  idea  of  an  International  Council  of  Women 
interested  in  the  movement  for  suffrage,  and  pressed  its  con. 
sideration  on  the  leading  reformers  in  those  countries.  A  few 
accepted  the  idea,  and  when  Miss  Anthony  arrived  in  England, 
some  months  later,  they  discussed  the  question  fully  with  each 
other ;  and,  seeing  that  such  a  convention  was  both  advisable 
and  practicable,  they  resolved  to  call  it  in  the  near  future. 

On  the  eve  of  their  departure  from  England,  at  a  reception 
given  them  in  Liverpool,  the  subject  was  presented  and  favor- 
ably received.  Among  the  guests  were  Priscilla  Bright 
McLaren,  Margaret  Bright  Lucas,  Alice  Scatcherd  and  Mar- 
garet E.  Parker.  The  initiative  steps  for  an  International 
Council  were  then  taken  and  a  committee  of  correspondence 
appointed.* 

Returning  to  America,  it  was  decided,  in  consultation  with 
friends,  to  celebrate  the  fourth  decade  of  the  woman  suffrage 
movement  by  calling  an  International  Council.  At  its  nine- 
teenth annual  convention,  January,  1887,  the  National  Woman 
Suffrage  Association  resolved  to  assume  the  entire  responsibility 

♦The  following  is  the  report  of  the  action  prepared  that  evening- by  Mrs.  Parker :  "At  a 
large  and  influential  gathering  of  the  friends  of  woman  suffrage,  at  Parliament  Terrace,  Liv- 
erpool, November  16,  1883,  convened  by  E.  Whittle,  M.  D.,  to  meet  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady 
Stanton  and  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony  prior  to  their  return  to  America,  a  resolution  was  pro- 
posed by  Mrs.  Margaret  E.  Parker,  of  Penketh  (near  Warrington),  seconded  by  Mrs.  McLaren, 
of  Edinburgh,  and  unanimously  passed: 

"That  this  meeting,  recognizing  that  union  is  strength  and  that  the  time  has  come  when 
women  all  over  the  world  should  unite  in  the  just  demand  for  their  political  enfranchise- 
ment; therefore 

"  Itesoived,  That  we  do  here  appoint  a  committee  of  correspondence,  preparatory  to  forming 
an  International  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 

"  Kesolved,  That  the  committee  consist  of  the  following  friends,  with  power  to  add  to  their 
number. 

"  For  the  American  Center— Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Miss  Rachel 
G.  Foster.  London  Center— Mrs.  Peter  A.  Taylor,  Mrs.  Margaret  B.  Lucas,  Miss  Helen  Taylor, 
Miss  Henrietta  Muller,  Miss  Caroline  A.  Biggs,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  McLaren,  Miss  Eliza  Orme, 
Miss  Rebecca  Moore,  London;  Mrs.  Harriot  Stanton  Blatch,  Basingstoke.  Manchester  >'entr— 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jacob  Bright,  Manchester;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  P.  Thomasson,  Bolton;  Mrs.  Mar- 
garet E.  Parker,  Pi  nketh ;  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Whittle,  Liverpool;  Mrs.  Oliver  Scatcherd,  Leeds; 
Mr.  and  Mis.  Walter  McLaren,  Bradford;  Mrs.  Philips,  Liverpool ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crook,  Bol- 
ton ;  Mr.  Berners,  Mr.  Russell,  Liverpool ;  Miss  Becker,  Manchester.  Bristol  Center— Miss 
Helen  Bright  Clarke,  Street ;  Mrs.  Alfred  Ostler,  Birmingham ;  Miss  Priestman,  Bristol, 
Center  for  Scot 'I  nd— Mrs.  Duncan  McLaren,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Pease  Nichol,  Miss  Eliza  Wigham 
Edinburgh.  Center  far  Ireland—  Miss  Tod,  Belfast;  Mrs.  Haslam,X)ublin.  Center fo~  France— 
M'lle  Hubertine  Auclert,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Theodore  Stanton,  Charlotte  B.  Wilbour,  Paris." 

2 


10  International  Council  of  Women. 

and  to  extend  the  invitation  to  all  associations  of  women  in 
the  trades,  professions  and  reforms,  as  well  as  those  advocat- 
ing political  rights. 

The  herculean  task  of  making  all  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments fell  chiefly  on  Miss  Anthony,  Miss  Rachel  G.  Foster,  and 
Mrs.  May  Wright  Sewall,  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Mrs.  Spofford  being 
in  Europe.  To  say  nothing  of  the  thought,  anxiety,  time,  and 
force  expended,  we  can  appreciate  in  some  measure  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  undertaking  by  its  financial  cost  of  over  $10,000. 

The  grand  assemblage  of  women  coming  from  many  coun- 
tries and  latitudes  proves  that  the  call  for  such  a  convention 
was  opportune,  while  the  order  and  dignity  of  the  proceedings 
prove  the  women  worthy  the  occasion.  No  one  doubts  now 
the  wisdom  of  this  initiative  step  nor  the  added  power  women 
have  gained  over  popular  thought  through  this  International 
Council. 

Early  in  June,  1887,  the  following  call  was  issued  : 

INTERNATIONAL 

COUNCIL    OF    WOMEN. 

The  first  organized  demand  for  equal  educational,  industrial,  professional, 
and  political  rights  for  women  was  made  in  a  convention  held  at  Seneca 
Falls,  New  fork  (U.  S.  A.),  in  the  year  1848. 

To  celebrate  the  fortieth  anniversary  of  this  event,  an  International  Coun- 
cil of  Women  will  be  convened  under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Woman 
Suffrage  Association,  in  Albaugh's  Opera  House,  Washing'  )n,  D.  C,  on 
March  25,  1888. 

It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  far-reaching  influence  of  such  a  coun- 
cil. An  interchange  of  opinions  on  the  great  questions  now  agitating  the 
world  will  rouse  women  to  new  thought,  will  intensify  their  love  of  liberty, 
and  will  give  them  a  realizing  sense  of  the  power  of  combination. 

However  the  governments,  religions,  laws,  and  customs  of  nations  may 
differ,  all  are  agreed  on  one  point,  namely,  man's  sovereignty  in  the  State, 
in  the  Church,  and  in  the  Home.  In  an  International  Council  women  may 
hope  to  devise  new  and  more  effective  methods  for  securing  the  equality  and 
justice  which  they  have  so  long  and  so  earnestly  sought.  Such  a  Council 
will  impress  the  important  lesson  that  the  position  of  women  anywhere 
affects  their  position  everywhere.  Much  is  said  of  universal  brotherhood, 
but,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  more  subtle  and  more  binding  is  universal  sisterhood. 

Women,  recognizing  the  disparity  between  their  labors  and  their  achieve- 


Programme.  11 

ments,  will  no  doubt  agree  that  they  have  been  trammeled  by  their  political 
subordination.  Those  active  in  great  philanthropic  enterprises  sooner  or 
later  realize  that,  so  long  as  women  are  not  acknowledged  to  be  the  political 
equals  of  men,  their  judgment  on  public  questions  will  have  but  little  weight. 

It  is,  however,  neither  intended  nor  desired  that  discussions  in  the  Inter- 
national Council  shall  be  limited  to  questions  touching  the  political  rights 
of  women.  Formal  invitations  requesting  the  appointment  of  delegates  will 
be  issued  to  representalive  organizations  in  every  department  of  woman's 
work.  Literary  Clubs,  Art  and  Temperance  Unions,  Labor  Leagues,  Mis- 
sionary, Peace,  and  Moral  Purity  Societies,  Charitable,  Professional,  Educa- 
tional, and  Industrial  Associations  will  thus  be  offered  equal  opportunity 
with  Suffrage  Societies  to  be  represented  in  what  should  be  the  ablest  and 
most  imposing  body  of  women  ever  assembled. 

The  Council  will  continue  eight  days,  and  its  fifteen  public  sessions  will 
afford  ample  opportunity  for  reporting  woman's  work  and  progress  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  during  the  past  forty  years.  It  is  hoped  that  all  friends  of 
the  advancement  of  women  will  lend  their  support  to  this  undertaking. 

On  behalf  of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 

Elizabeth  Cadv  Stanton,  President,  8  W.  40th  St.,  New  York. 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  First  Vice-President,.  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Matilda  Joslyn  Gage,  Second  Vice-President,  Fayetteville,  N.  Y. 
May  Wright  Sewall,  Ch.  Ex.  Com.,  343  N.  Penn.  St.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Ellen  H.  Sheldon,  Recording  Secretary,  811  9th  St.  N.W.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Jane  H.  Spofford,  Treasurer,  Riggs  House,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Rachel  G.  Foster,  Cor.  Sec,  748  N.  19th  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
June  1,  1887. 

After  an  extensive  correspondence,  both  in  Europe  and 
America,  the  following  programme  was  prepared : 


Sttnday,  March  25. 


2.30     OP.     "ML. 


RELIGIOUS  SERVICE. 

Hymn — Rev.  Phebe  A.  Hanaford. 

Reading  of  Scriptures — Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles.     26th  Chapter  of  Acts. 

Prayer — Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell. 

Hymn — Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw. 

Sermon — Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw. 

Subject:    The  Heavenly  Vision. 
Hymn — Rev.  Amanda  Deyo. 

Benediction— Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell. 

ADMISSION  FREE. 


12  International  Council  of  Women. 

Monday,  March   26. 


10.00  A.  M. 


MORNING     SESSION. 

FORMAL  OPENING   OF  THE   COUNCIL. 

Music — The  Promised  Land. 

Invocation — Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell,  Del.  American  W.  S.  A. 

Address — Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Pres.  National  W.  S.  A.  of  America. 

Greetings  and  Letters  to  the  Council. 

Announcement  of  Committee  on  Permanent  Organization. 

Music. 


EVENING    SESSION. 

7.30  P.  M. 

EDUCATION. 

Music  by  the  Orchestra. 

7.45      Invocation — Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw. 

May  Wright  Sewall,  Principal  Indianapolis  Classical  School  for  Girls. 

Higher  Education  for  Women  in  the  United  States. 

8.15     Pundita  Ramabai  Sarasvati. 

The  Women  of  India. 

8.35      Sarah  B.  Cooper,  Pres.  Golden  Gate  Kindergarten  Association. 

(Paper.)      The  Kindergarten  in  its  Development  of  Faculty. 

8.50      Louisa  Reed  Stowell,  M.  S.,  F.  R.  M.  S.,  Pres.  and  Del.  of  Western  Collegiate 
Alumnse. 

Retrospection. 

9.00      Rena  A.  Michaels,  Ph.  D.,  Dean  of  Woman's  College,  Northwestern  University. 

Co-Education. 
9.10      Alexandra  Gripenberg,  Del.  of  Finnish  Women's  Association. 
9.20     Ada  M.  Frederiksen,  Del.  of  Danish  Women's  Association. 

(Paper.)     Report  of  Danish  Women's  Association' 

9.30      Cora  A.  Benneson,  A.  M.,  LL.  B.,   (Mich.  University),  Fellow  in   History, 

Bryn  Mawr  College. 

College  Fellowships  for  Women. 

9.40      Martha  McLellan  Brown,  Vice-President  Wesleyan  College,  Cincinnati. 

Institutive  Power. 


Programme.  13 

Tuesday,  March  27. 

MORNING  SESSION. 


10.00  A.  M. 


PHILANTHROPIES. 

Harriette  R.  Shattuck,  Pres.  of  Nat'l  W.  S.  Ass'n  for  Mass.,  Presiding. 
Invocation — Zerelda  G.  Wallace. 
Music. 
10.10      Isabel  C.  Barrows,  Del.  Woman's  Auxiliary  Conference,  Unitarian  Ass'n. 

The  Work  of  Unitarian  Women. 
Victoria  Richardson,  Del.  Western  Women's  Unitarian  Conference. 
10.30     Jennie  Fowler  Willing. 

(Paper.)      Woman  as  Missionary. 
10.40      Laura  McNeir,  Del.  and  Pres.  Ladies  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 
11.05      Isabelle  Bogelot,  Del.  and  Dir.  Prison  Reform  Work  of  St.  Lazare,  Paris. 

Work  of  the  St.  Lazare. 
11.25      Ednah  D.  Cheney,  Pres.  and   Del.  New  England  Hospital  for  Women  and 
Children.  Hospitals  Managed  by  and  for  Women. 

11.35      Harriet  N.  Morris,  Ex-Principal  Public  School  No.  39,  Brooklyn. 

Missionary  Work. 
11.45      Emily  S.  Richards,  Del.  Women's  Associations  of  Utah. 
11.55     Amelia  S.  Quinton,  Del.  and  Pres.  Woman's  National  Indian  Ass'n. 

Work  and  Objects  of  the  Woman's  Indian  Association. 
12.05      E.  Florence  Barker,  Del.  and  Ex-Pres.  Woman's  National  Relief  Corps  of 

the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 
12.15      Clara  Barton,  Del.  and  Nat'l  Pres.  American  Association  of  the  Red  Cross. 

The  Red  Cross  Society. 
Music. 

EVENING  SESSION. 

7.30  P.  M. 

TEMPERANCE. 

Music  by  the  Orchestra. 
7.45      Invocation — Judith  Ellen  Foster. 

Frances  E.  Willard,  Del.  and  Pres.  National  W.  C.  T.  U. 

Woman  and  Temperance. 
8.15      Hannah  Whitall  Smith,  Del.  and  American  Sec.  World's  W.  C.  T.  U. 

The  Latest  Evolution  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 
8.30      Bessie  Starr  Keefer,  Del.  Toronto  W.  C.  T.  U. 
8.40     Anna  Gordon. 

Haiv  to  Reach  the  Children. 
8.50     Frances  E.  W.  Harper. 

What  Shall  Be  Done  with  the  Neglected  Rich. 
9.00      Susan  H.  Barney,  Del.  and  Nat'l  Supt.   Prison,  Jail,   Police  and  Almshouse 
Work  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 

Police  Matrons. 
9.15      Dr.   Mary  Weeks   Burnett,   Del.    Nat'l   Temperance   Hospital   and   Med 
College  Ass'n. 

The  Temperance  Hospital. 
9.25      Matilda  B.  Carse. 

The  Temperance  Temple. 
9.30      Mary  H.  Hunt,  Nat'l  Supt.  Scientific  Instruction,  W.  C.  T.  U. 

Our  Reasons. 
9.45      "  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  sung  by  the  audience. 


14  International  Council  of  Women. 

Wednesday,  March  28. 


10.00  A.  M. 


MORNING     SESSION 

INDUSTRIES. 


Laura  M.  Johns,  Pres.  Kansas  Equal  Suffrage  Ass'n,  Presiding. 
Invocation — Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw. 
Music. 
10.15      Mary  A.  Livermore,  Del.  American  Woman  Suffrage  Ass'n. 

Woman's  Industrial  Gains  During  the  Last  Half  Century. 
10.55      Anna  M.  Worden,  Worthy  Master  of  Vineland  Grange,  No.  II. 

Women  in  the  Grange. 
1 1. 15     Hulda  B.  Loud. 

Women  in  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

11.30      Helen  Campbell,  Vice-President  Sociologic  Society  of  America. 

(Paper.)     Women  in  the  Trades. 
Lita  Barey  Sayles,  Del.  and  Gen'l  Sec.  Sociologic  Society  of  America. 
11.50      Leonora  M.  Barry,  Del.  and  Organizer  of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

What  the  Knights  of  Labor  are  Doing  for  Women. 
12.05     Esther  L.  Warner. 

Women  as  Farmers. 
Music. 


EVENING    SESSION. 

7.30  P.  M. 

PROFESSIONS 

Music  by  the  Orchestra. 
7.45      Invocation. 

Prof.  Rena  A.  Michaels. 


Women  as  Educators. 
Woman  in  Journalism. 
Woman  in  Medicine. 


8.00     Laura  C.  Holloway. 
8.10     Dr.  Sarah  Hackett  Stevenson. 
Violin  Solo — Maud  Powell. 

8.30      Ada  M.  Bittenbender,  Nat"  1  Sup't  Legislation  and  Petitions  of  W.  C.  T.  U. 

Woman  in  Law. 

8.40     Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles. 

Woman  in  the  Ministry, 

8.50      Martha  R.  Field,  Del.  Woman's  International  Press  Ass'n. 

9.00      Marion  McBride,  Sec.  International  Press  Ass'n.     (Paper.) 

9.10     Amelia  Hadley  Mohl,  Del.  Woman's  National  Press  Ass'n. 

9.20     Matilda  B.  Carse. 

Woman  and  Finance. 


Programme.  15 

Thiers  day,  March  2g. 

MORNING  SESSION. 

10.00  A.  M. 

ORGANIZATION. 

Matilda  Joslyn  Gage,  Vice-Pres.  at  Large,  Nat'l  W.  S.  A.,  Presiding. 

Invocation — Isabella  Beecher  Hooker. 

Music. 

10.  i  s      Julia  Ward  Howe,  Del.  and  Pres.  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Women. 

The  Power  of  Organization. 

10.45      Mary  F.  Eastman,  Del.  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Women. 

1 1.05      Alexandra  Gripenberg,  Del.  of  the  Finnish  Women's  Association. 

The  Work  of  Finnish  Women. 

11.25      Abby  Morton  Diaz,  Del.  and   Pres.  Women's  Educational  and   Industrial 
Union  (Boston). 

Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Unions. 

Marilla  M.  Hills,  Del.  Woman's  Missionary  Society  Freewill  Baptist  Church 

11.40     Ada  M.   Frederiksen,   Del.  of  Danish   Woman's  Association  and   Danish 
Women's  Society  for  the  Protection  of  Young  Girls.     (Paper.) 

12.00     Fanny  Zampini  Salazaro,  Editor  "Woman's  Review"  (Rome). 

(Paper.)     The  Women  of  Italy. 
12.20     M.  Louise  Thomas,  Pres.  and  Del.  Sorosis. 

The  Work  of  Sorosis. 
12.30     Jennie  C.  Croly  (Jennie  June),  Del.  and  Ex.- Pres.  Sorosis. 

May  Wright  Sewall. 

Frances  E.  Willard. 

12.50     Susan  B.  Anthony. 

Music. 


EVENING  SESSION. 

7.30  P.  M. 

LEGAL  CONDITIONS. 

Music  by  the  Orchestra. 
7.45      Invocation — Susan  H.  Barney. 

Lillie  Devereux  Blake,  Pres.  N.  Y.  State  W.  S.  A. 

Legal  Disabilities  of  Women. 

8.15      Alice  Scatcherd,  Del.  of  Edinburgh  Nat'l  Society  for  Women's  Suffrage,  and 
the  Darlington,  Yorkshire  and  Southport  Women's  Liberal  Ass'ns. 

Legal  Conditions  of  Women  in  the  Three  Kingdoms. 

8.45      Alice  Fletcher,  Special  Indian  Agent  under  the  Severalty  Bill. 

Legal  Conditions  of  Indian  Women 
9.15      Matilda  Joslyn  Gage. 

Law  in  the  Family. 
9.25      Lucy  Stone,  Del.  American  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 


16  International  Council  of  Women. 

Friday,  March  jo. 
MORNING    SESSION. 

SOCIAL  PURITY  (SESSION  FOR  WOMEN  ALONE). 


10.00  A.  M. 


Elizabeth  Boynton  Harbert,  Vice-Pres.  Nat'l  W.  S.  A.  for  Illinois,  Presiding. 
Invocation — Martha  McLellan  Brown. 
Music. 
10.25      Elizabeth  Lisle  Saxon,  Vice-Pres.  Nat'l  W.  S.  A.  for  Tennessee. 
10.45      Anna  Rice  Powell,  Del.  N.  Y.  Com.  for  the  Prevention  of  State  Regulation  of 
Vice. 
The  International  Federation  for  the  Abolition  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice. 

1 1 .05      Laura  Ormiston  Chant,  Del.  of  Edinburgh  Nat'l  Society  for  Women's  Suffrage, 

and  Nat'l  Vigilance  Ass'n,  England. 
11.25      Caroline  M.  S.  Frazar,  Del.  Moral  Education  Society,  Boston. 
11.30      Dr.  Caroline  B.  Winslow,  Pres.  District  of  Columbia  Moral  Ed.  Society. 

The  Starting  Point. 

Dr.  Ruth  M.  Wood,  Physician  Industrial  School,  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah. 
11.45      Harriette   R.  Shattuck. 

11.55      Sophia  Magelsson  Groth,  Del.  Norwegian  W.  S.  Society. 
12.05     Clara  Cleghorne  Hoffman,  Del.  Nat'l  W.  C.  T.  U. 
12.15      Frances  E.  Willard. 

Music. 

EVENING    SESSION. 

7.30  P.  M. 

POLITICAL  CONDITIONS. 

Music  by  the  Orchestra. 
7.45      Invocation — Rev.  Amanda  Deyo. 

Isabella  Beecher  Hooker,  Vice-Pres.  of  Nat'l  \V.  S.  A.  for  Connecticut. 

Constitutional  Rights  of  the  Women  of  the  United  States. 

8.30     J.  Ellen  Foster. 

Women  in  Politics. 

8.40     Harriet  H.  Robinson,  Mem.  Ex.  Com.  Nat'l  W.  S.  A. 

Political  Parties  and  Woman  Suffrage. 
8.50      Martha  A.  Everett,  Del.  Mass.  School  Suffrage  Ass'n. 
9.00      Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw,  Sup't  Franchise  Dep't  Nat'l  W.  C.  T.  U. 

School  Suffrage. 
9.10     Laura  M.  Johns. 

Municipal  Suffrage. 
9.20      Ellen  M.  S.  Marble,  Pres.  Minn.  W.  S.  Ass'n. 

9.40     Frances  E.  Willard. 


Programme.  Ill 

Safotrday,  March  ji. 


MORNING  SESSION. 


10.00  A.  M. 


CONFERENCE  OF  THE   PIONEERS. 

Silent  Invocation. 

Song — Greeting  to  the  Pioneers,  John  W.  Hutchinson,  Lynn,  Mass. 

Addresses  : 

Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  New  York. 
Frederick  Douglass,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Hymn — The  Reformers,  John  G.  Whittier. 
Lucy  Stone,  Boston,  Mass. 
Henry  B.  Blackwell,  Boston,  Mass. 
Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell,  Elizabeth,  N.  J. 
Robert  Purvis,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Song — The  Lost  Chord,  Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 
Mary  Grew,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Matilda  Joslyn  Gage,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Samuel  C.  Pomeroy,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Song — One  Hundred  Years  Hence,  John  W.  Hutchinson;  words  by  Frances 
Dana  Gage. 
Among  the   Pioneers  on  the  stage  will  be :    Amy   Post,  Sarah   H.  Willis,  Mary  H. 
Hallowell,   Sarah    Anthony    Burtis,    Mary  S.   Anthony,  Clemence  S.   Lozier,  M.  D.,  Dr« 
Harriet   N.   Austin,    Olive    Frazer    Ingalls,   Albert  O.    Wilcox,   New    York;    M.    Adeline 
Thomson,  Janette    Jackson,  Dr.    Hannah  Longshore,  Emily  Winslow   Taylor,  Sarah  H. 
Pierce,   Dinah  Mendenhall,  Samuel   Pennock,  Pennsylvania ;  Sarah   H.  Southwick,   Anna 
Gardner,  Catharine  Swan  Spear,  Sarah  E.  Wall,  Massachusetts ;  Emily  P.Collins,  Charlotte 
Joy  Mann,  Connecticut ;  Susan  E.   Wattles,  Kansas;    Esther  Wattles,   Ohio;  Virginia  L 
Minor,  Missouri ;  Dr.  Caroline  B.  Winslow,  Dr.  Susan  Edson,  Jane  B.  Archibald,  Julia  A 
Wilbur,  Caroline  II.  Dall,  Grace  Greenwood,  Washington,  D.  C;  Catharine  A.  F.  Stebbins, 
Michigan;  Marilla  M.  Hills,  Neio   Hampshire ;  Caroline  A.  Putnam,  Virginia;  Catharine 
V.  Waite,  Illinois. 

Music — Auld  Lang  Syne. 


EVENING  SESSION 

7.30  P.  M. 

POLITICAL  CONDITIONS. 

Music  by  the  Orchestra. 
7.45      Invocation — Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 
Helen  H.  Gardener. 

Sex  in  Brain. 
8.15      Mrs.  Ashton  Dilke,  Del.  Newcastle  Women's  Liberal  Ass'n,  England. 
8.45      Alexandra  Gripenberg,  Del.  Finnish  Women's  Union. 
9.05      Zadll  B.  Gustafson,  Del.  Nat'l  Prohibition  Movement,  Great  Britain. 
9.20     Clara  Neymann. 

Sentimenlalism  in  Politics. 


18  International  Council  of  Women. 

Sunday,  April  i . 

AFTERNOON    SESSION. 


2.30  P.  M. 


RELIGIOUS  SYMPOSIUM. 


Susan  B.  Anthony,  VicePres.  at  Large,  Nat'l  W.  S.  A.,  Presiding. 

Invocation — Mrs.  J.  P.  Newman. 

Hymn —  Greeting. 

2.40     Matilda  Joslyn  Gage. 

Women  in  the  Early  Christian  Church. 

2.50     Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell. 

Science  and  Religious  Truth. 

3.15  Caroline  H.  Dall. 

3.25  Elizabeth  Boynton  Harbert. 

3.45  Hymn. 

4.05  Isabella  Beecher  Hooker. 

4.15  Julia  Ward  Howe. 

4.25  Elizabeth  G.  Stuart. 

4.35  Ednah  D.  Cheney. 

4.45  Frances  E.  Willard. 

Hymn — The  Church  Universal. 


EVENING    SESSION. 

7.45  P-  M. 

CLOSE  OF  THE  COUNCIL. 

Invocation — Mary  H.  Hunt. 

Music. 

Isabella  Bogelot. 

Alli  Trygg,  of  Finland. 

Zerelda  G.  Wallace. 

Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton. 

Music.  , 

ADJOURNMENT. 


The  Moral  Power  of  the  Ballot. 
Closing  Address. 


Programme. 


19 


}tymi?5. 


1.  God  Shall  Lead  Us  On. 

julia  mills  dunn. 
Tune— "John  Brown." 

From  Wyoming's  rocky  valleys  to  the 
wild  New  Hampshire  hills, 

From  our  Northern  lakes  of  silver  to  the 
sunny  Southern  rills, 

Lo  !  the  clarion  call  of  Freedom  all  the 
listening  silence  thrills ! 
Our  God  shall  lead  us  on. 

Chorus. 

Glory,  Glory,  Hallelujah ! 
Glory,  Glory,  Hallelujah  ! 
Glory,  Glory,  Hallelujah ! 
Our  God  shall  lead  us  on. 


We  have  heard  the  voice  of  Freedom  from 
that  far-off  Western  shore, 

We  have  heard  the  echoes  calling,  as  our 
fathers  heard  of  yore. 

Let  us  sing  its  stirring  music,  "  Equal 
rights  forevermore  ! " 
And  God  shall  lead  us  on. — Chorus. 


We  have  watched  the  dawning  splendor 
of  a  promise  in  the  skies, 

We  have  heard  his  accents  tender,  "  Lo  ! 
ye  faithful  ones,  arise  !  " 

"  Who  would  equal  justice  render,  I  will 
nevermore  despise," 
"  Your  God  shall  lead  you  on." — Cho. 


2.  Prayer. 

james  montgomery. 
Music— "St.  Agnes." 

Prayer  is  the  soul's  sincere  desire, 
Uttered  or  unexpressed ; 

The  motion  of  a  hidden  fire 
That  trembles  in  the  breast. 


Prayer  is  the  burden  of  a  sigh, 

The  falling  of  a  tear; 
The  upward  glancing  of  the  eye, 

When  none  but  God  is  near. 


Prayer  is  the  simplest  form  of  speech 

That  infant  lips  can  try; 
Prayer  the  sublimest  strains  that  reach 

The  Majesty  on  high. 


3.  The  Reformers, 
john  g.  whittier. 
Tune—''  Ortonville." 

O  pure  Reformers  !  not  in  vain 

Your  trust  in  human-kind; 
The  good  which  bloodshed  could  not  gain, 

Your  peaceful  zeal  shall  find. 

The  truths  ye  urge  are  borne  abroad 

By  every  wind  and  tide; 
The  voice  of  nature  and  of  God 

Speaks  out  upon  your  side. 

The  weapons  which  your  hands  have  found 
Are  those  which  Heaven  hath  wrought — 

Light,    Truth,    and    Love;    your  battle- 
ground , 
The  free,  broad  field  of  Thought. 

Oh,  may  no  selfish  purpose  break 

The  beauty  of  your  plan; 
No  lie  from  throne  or  altar  shake 

Your  steady  faith  in  man  ! 

Press  on  !  and  if  we  may  not  share 

The  glory  of  your  fight, 
We'll  ask  at  least,  in  earnest  prayer, 

God's  blessing  on  the  right. 

4.  Auld  Lang  Syne, 
john  w.  chadwick. 

Music— "Au  d  Lang  Syne." 
It  singeth  low  in  every  heart; 

We  hear  it  each  and  all — 
A  song  of  those  who  answer  not, 

However  we  may  call. 
They  throng  the  silence  of  the  breast; 

We  s«e  them  as  of  yore — 
The  kind,  the  true,  the  brave,  the  sweet, 

Who  walk  with  us  no  more. 

'Tis  hard  to  take  the  burden  up, 

When  these  have  laid  it  down; 
They  brighten  all  the  joys  of  life, 

They  soften  every  frown. 
But,  oh  !  'tis  good  to  think  of  them 

When  we  are  troubled  sore; 
Thanks  be  to  God  that  such  have  been, 

Although  they  are  no  more  ! 

More  homelike  seems  the  vast  unknown 

Since  they  have  entered  there; 
To  follow  them  were  not  so  hard, 

Wherever  they  may  fare. 
They  can  not  be  where  God  is  not, 

On  any  sea  or  shore; 
Whate'er  betides,  thy  love  abides, 

Our  God  forevermore ! 


20 


International  Council  of  Women. 


5.  Lo!    He  Cometh. 

JAMES  MONTGOMERY. 

Tune—"  Missionary  Hymn." 

God  comes,  with  succor  speedy, 

To  those  who  suffer  wrong; 
To  help  the  poor  and  needy, 

And  bid  the  weak  be  strong; 
He  comes  to  break  oppression, 

And  set  the  captive  free; 
To  take  away  transgression, 

And  rule  in  equity. 

To  Him  shall  prayer  unceasing, 

And  daily  vows  ascend; 
His  kingdom  still  increasing, 

A  kingdom  without  end. 
The  tide  of  time  shall  never 

His  covenant  remove; 
His  name  shall  stand  forever, 

His  great,  best  name  of  Love. 


>.    The  Word  of  the   Lord  Abideth 
Forever. 

samuel  longfellow. 

Music—"  Worthing'." 

God  of  ages  and  of  nations  ! 

Every  race  and  every  time 
Hath  received  thine  inspirations, 

Glimpses  of  thy  truth  sublime. 
Ever  spirits,  in  rapt  vision, 

Passed  the  heavenly  veil  within; 
Ever  hearts,  bowed  in  contrition, 

Found  salvation  from  their  sin. 

Reason's  noble  aspiration, 

Truth  in  growing  clearness  saw; 
Conscience  spoke  its  condemnation, 

Or  proclaimed  the  Eternal  Law. 
"While  thine  inward  revelations 

Told  thy  saints  their  prayers  were 
heard, 
Prophets  to  the  guilty  nations 

Spoke  thine  everlasting  word. 

Lord,  that  word  abideth  ever; 

Revelation  is  not  sealed; 
Answering  unto  man's  endeavor, 

Truth  and  Right  are  still  revealed. 
That  which  came  to  ancient  sages, 

Greek,  Barbarian,  Roman,  Jew, 
Written  in  the  heart's  deep  pages, 

Shines  to-day,  forever  new  ! 


7.  Old  and  New. 

j.  g.  whittiek. 
Tune—"  Hamburg." 
Oh,  sometimes  gleams  upon  our  sight, 
Through  present  wrong,  the  eternal  right; 
And  step  by  step,  since  time  began, 
"We  see  the  steady  gain  of  man. 


That  all  of  good  the  past  hath  had 
Remains  to  make  our  own  time  glad, 
Our  common,  daily  life  divine, 
And  every  land  a  Palestine. 

Through  the  harsh  noises  of  our  day 
A  low,  sweet  prelude  finds  its  way; 
Through  clouds  of  doubt  and  creeds  of 

fear 
A  light  is  breaking  calm  and  clear. 

Henceforth  my  heart  shall  sigh  no  more 
For  olden  time  and  holier  shore; 
God's  love  and  blessing,  then  and  there, 
Are  now,  and  here,  and  everywhere. 


8. 


Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee, 
sarah  flower  adams. 
Tune—"  Bethany." 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee, 

Nearer  to  thee, 
E'en  though  it  be  a  cross 

That  raiseth  me, 
Still  all  my  song  shall  be, 
||  Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee,  || 
Nearer  to  thee. 

Though  like  a  wanderer, 

Daylight  all  gone, 
Darkness  be  over  me, 

My  rest  a  stone, 

Yet  in  my  dreams  I'd  be 

||  Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee,  || 

Nearer  to  thee. 

There  let  the  way  appear 
Steps  unto  heaven; 

All  that  thou  sendest  me 
In  mercy  given; 

Angels  to  beckon  me, 
||  Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee,  || 
Nearer  to  thee. 

Or  if  on  joyful  wing 

Cleaving  the  sky, 
Sun,  moon,  and  stars  forgot, 

Upward  I  fly, — 

Still  all  my  song  shall  be, 

||  Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee,  || 

Nearer  to  thee. 


9. 


God  is  Love. 

BOWRING. 

Tune — "  Stockwell." 
God  is  love;  his  mercy  brightens 

All  the  path  in  which  we  rove; 
Bliss  he  wakes  and  love  he  lightens; 

God  is  wisdom,  God  is  love. 

E'en  the  hour  that  darkest  seemeth 
Will  his  changeless  goodness  prove; 

From  the  gloom  his  brightness  streameth; 
God  is  wisdom,  God  is  love. 


Programme . 


21 


He  with  earthly  cares  entwineth 
Hope  and  comfort  from  above;- 

Everywhere  his  glory  shineth; 
God  is  wisdom,  God  is  love. 


10.  Home,  Sweet  Home. 

'Mid  pleasures   and   palaces,  though  we 

may  roam, 
Be  it  ever  so  humble,  there's  no  place 

like  home. 
A  charm  from  tbe  skies  seems  to  hallow 

us  there, 
Which,  seek  through  the  world,  is  ne'er 

met  with  elsewhere. 
Home,  home,  sweet,  sweet  home  ! 
There's  no  place  like  home,  there's  no 

place  like  home. 

An  exile  from  home,  splendor  dazzles  in 

vain. 
O  !   give  me  my  lowly  thatched  cottage 

again. 
The  birds  singing  gaily  that  came  at  my 

call, 
Give  me  them,  with  the  peace  of  mind, 

dearer  than  all. 
Home,  home,  sweet,  sweet  home  ! 
There's  no  place  like  home,  there's  no 

place  like  home. 


11.    Thou  Grace  Divine,  Encircling 

All. 

eliza  8cudder. 

Tune—"  Ballerma." 

Thou  grace  divine,  encircling  all, 

A  shoreless,  soundless  sea, 
Wherein  at  last  our  souls  must  fall, 
O  love  of  God  most  free  ! 

When  over  dizzy  heights  we  go, 
One  soft  hand  blinds  our  eyes, 

The  other  leads  us  safe  and  slow, — 
O  love  of  God  most  wise  ! 

And  though  we  turn  us  from  thy  face, 

And  wander  wide  and  long, 
Thou  hold'st  us  still  in  thine  embrace, 
O  love  of  God  most  strong  ! 

The  saddened  heart,  the  restless  soul, 
The  toil-worn  frame  and  mind, 

Alike  confess  thy  sweet  control,— 
O  love  of  God  most  kind  ! 

And  filled  and  quickened  by  thy  breath 

Our  souls  are  strong  and  free 
To  rise  o'er  sin  and  fear  and  death 

O  love  of  God,  to  thee  ! 


Monday,  March  26. 
(Opening.) 
12.  The  Promised  Land. 

Tune—"  Beulah  Land." 

Dedicated   to   the   International    Council   of 

Women. 

ELIZABETH   BOYNTON    HARBERT. 

Our  weary  years  of  wandering  o'er, 

We  greet  with  joy  this  radiant  shore; 

The  promised  land  of  liberty, 

The  dawn  of  freedom's  morn  we  see. 

O  promised  land,  we  enter  in, 

With   "Peace  on   earth,   good-will  to 

men;" 
The  "  Golden  Age  "  now  comes  again, 
As  breaketh  every  bond  and  chain; 
While  every  race  and  sect  and  clime 
Shall  equal  share  in  this  glad  time. 

Toilers  in  many  fields  have  come 
With   sheaves  for  this  our  "  Harvest 

Home," 
While  spirits  true  in  every  age 
Have  won  for  us  this  heritage. 
O  golden  dawn,  O  promised  day, 
When  error's  lost  in  truth's  clear  ray, 
When  all  shall  know  that  God  is  love, 
His  kingdom  here,  around,  above, 
The  world  one  equal  brotherhood, 
And  evil  overcome  with  good. 

Then  onward  march  in  truth's  crusade, 
Earth's  faltering  ones  implore  our  aid, 
The  children  of  our  schools  and  State, 
This  coming  of  the  mother's  wait. 
O  doubting  hearts  !  O  tempted  ones  ! 
The  shadows  fade,  the  sunshine  comes; 
Freedom  for  each  is  best  for  all, 
The  "  Golden  Rule  "  our  bugle  call; 
And  as  to  victory  on  we  move, 
The  banner  over  us  is  Jove. 


13.  The  True  Fast. 

james  drumjiond. 
Music—"  Dennis." 
"  Is  this  a  fast  for  me  ?.'" 

Thus  saith  the  Lord  our  God; 
"A  day  for  man  to  vex  his  soul, 
And  feel  affliction's  rod? 

"No;  is  not  this  alone 
The  sacred  fast  I  choose, 

Oppression's  yoke  to  burst  in  twain, 
The  bands  of  guilt  unloose  ? 

"  To  nakedness  and  want 
Your  food  and  raiment  deai, 

To  dwell  your  kindred  race  among, 
And  all  their  sufferings  heal  ? 


22 


International  Council  of  Women. 


"  Then  like  the  morning  ray 
Shall  spring  your  health  and  light; 

Before  you,  righteousness  shall  shine, 
Behind,  my  glory  bright." 


14.     The  Church  Universal, 
samuel  longfellow. 
Music— "  Bowdoin  Square." 
One  holy  Church  of  God  appears 

Through  every  age  and  race, 
Unwasted  by  the  lapse  of  years, 
Unchanged  by  changing  place. 

From  oldest  time,  on  farthest  shores, 

Beneath  the  pine  or  palm, 
One  unseen  presence  she  adores, 

With  silence  or  with  psalm. 

Her  priests  are  all  God's  faithful  sons, 
To  serve  the  world  raised  up; 

The  pure  in  heart,  her  baptized  ones, 
Love  her  communion-cup. 

The  truth  is  her  prophetic  gift, 

The  soul  her  sacred  page, 
And  feet  on  mercy's  errands  swift 

Do  make  her  pilgrimage. 

O  living  Church,  thine  errand  speed, 

Fulfill  thy  task  sublime, 
With  Bread  of  Life  earth's  hunger  feed, 

Redeem  the  evil  time  ! 


15. 


Greeting. 

samuel  longfellow. 


Music—  "Missionary  Chant." 

O  Life,  that  maketh  all  things  new, — 
The  blooming  earth,  the  thoughts  of 
men, 

Our  pilgrim  feet,  wet  with  thy  dew, 
In  gladness  hither  turn  again. 

From  hand  to  hand  the  greeting  flows, 
From  eye  to  eye  the  signals  run, 

From  heart  to  heart  the  bright  hope 
glows ; 
The  seekers  of  the  light  are  one. 

One  in  the  freedom  of  the  truth, 
One  in  the  joy  of  paths  untrod, 

One  in  the  soul's  perennial  youth, 
One  in  the  larger  thought  of  God. 

The  freer  step,  the  fuller  breath, 
The  wide  horizon's  grander  view, 

The  sense  of  life  that  knows  no  death, 
The  Life  that  maketh  all  things  new. 


16. 

Hark!  The  Sound  of  Myriad  Voices. 
harriet  h.  robinson. 
Tune—"  Hold  the  Fort." 
Hark!  the  sound  of  myriad  voices 

Rising  in  their  might; 
'Tis  the  daughters  of  Columbia 
Pleading  for  the  right. 

Chorus. 

Raise  the  flag  and  plant  the  standard, 

Wave  the  signal  still; 
Brothers,  we  must  share  your  freedom; 

Help  us,  and  we  will. 

Think  it  not  an  idle  murmur, 

You  who  hear  the  cry; 
'Tis  a  plea  for  human  freedom, 

Hallowed  liberty! — Chorus. 

O  our  country!  glorious  nation, 

Greatest  of  them  all ; 
Give  unto  thy  daughters  justice, 

Or  thy  pride  will  fall. — Chorus. 

Great  Republic!  to  thy  watchword 

Would'st  thou  faithful  be. 
All  beneath  thy  starry  banner 

Must  alike  be  free. — Chorus. 


17. 


New  Columbia. 


ANNA   GARDNER. 
Tune—"  The  Red,  White,  and  Blue," 

O  Columbia,  gem  of  the  ocean, 
A  home  for  the  brave  may  you  be; 

A  shrine  for  the  people's  devotion 
Be  the  land  of  the  just  and  the  free! 

Forget  not  the  rights  of  your  mothers, 
When  Liberty's  form  stands  in  view, 

Or  when  proudly  you  carry  her  colors, 
And  boast  of  the  red,  white,  and  blue! 

Chorus. 
And  boast  of  the  red,  white,  and  blue — 
And  boast  of  the  red,  white,  and  blue — 
Or  when  proudly  you  carry  her  colors, 
And  boast  of  the  red,  white,  and  blue! 

O  Columbia,  list  to  your  daughters! 
They  rally  from  hilltop  and  plain, 
And  a  prayer  echoes  over  the  waters 

That  justice  and  freedom  shall  reign. 

When  the  banner  of  freedom  floats  o'er  us, 

And  her  sons  to  her  teachings  are  true, 

We  will  join  in  the  soul-stirring  chorus — 

Three  cheers  for  the  red ,  white,  and  blue ! 

Chorus. 
Three  cheers  for  the  red,  white,   and 

blue — 
Three  cheers  for  the  red,  white,  and 

blue — 
Then   we'll   join    in    the    soul-stirring 

chorus, 
Three  cheers  for  the  red,  white,  and  blue. 


Reception. 


23 


18.   The  Equal-Rights  Banner, 
by  kev.  c.  c.  harrah. 

Tune—"  The  Star-Spangled  Banner." 
Oh,  say,  have  you  heard  of  the  new,  dawn- 
ing light, 
Bringing  hope  to  our  land,  and  its  foes  all 

surprising  ? 
Our  banner  still  floats  as  the  emblem  of 

right, 
And  the  day  breaks  upon  us,  for  women 

are  rising. 
And  with  ballots  in  hand,  at  the  right's 

dear  command, 
They'll  be  true  to  the  flag  and  will  rescue 

our  land; 
And  ever  the  Equal -Rights  Banner 

shall  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of 

the  brave. 

The  women  for  truth  and  for  virtue  will 

stand, 
And  the  country  be  freed  from  unjust 

legislation, 
And  Heaven  then  will  smile  on  a  purified 

land, 
And  the  Power  shall  be  praised  that  hath 

kept  us  a  nation. 
Woman's  ballot  is  just,  so  then  conquer 

we  must, 
And  this  be  our  watchword — "In  God  is 

Our  Trust!" 


And  our  Equal-Rights  Banner  in  tri- 
umph shall  wave 

O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of 
the  brave. 


19.  The  New  America. 

elizabeth  boynton  harbert. 
Tune— "America." 
Our  country,  now  from  thee 
Claim  we  our  liberty, 

In  freedom's  name. 
Guarding  home's  altar  fires, 
Daughters  of  patriot  sires, 
Their  zeal  our  own  inspires 
Justice  to  claim. 

Women  in  every  age 
For  this  great  heritage 

Tribute  have  paid. 
Our  birth-right  claim  we  now- 
Longer  refuse  to  bow; 
On  freedom' 8  altar  now 

Our  hand  is  laid. 

Sons,  will  you  longer  see 
Mothers  on  bended  knee 

For  justice  pray  ? 
Rise,  now  in  manhood's  might, 
With  earth's  great  souls  unite 
To  speed  the  dawning  light 

Of  freedom's  day. 


On  Saturday  evening,  March  24th,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Spofford 
gave  a  reception,  at  the  Riggs  House,  to  the  officers  and 
delegates  of  the  Council.  The  large  dining-room,  artistically 
decorated  with  the  flags  of  all  countries  and  the  States  of  the 
Union,  was  thrown  open,  but  it  was  soon  so  densely  packed, 
as  were  the  parlors  and  halls  also,  that  the  slightest  attempt 
to  change  one's  position  was  beset  with  difficulties. 

Although  the  crowd  continued  from  9  o'clock  until  mid- 
night, but  few  had  an  opportunity  to  exchange  the  civilities  of 
the  occasion.  However,  the  discomfort  was  gratifying.  That 
such  numbers  desired  to  pay  their  respects  to  the  leaders  of 
so  many  reform  movements  showed  a  marked  change  in 
public  sentiment. 


SUNDAY,  MAECH  25,  1888. 


2.30  P.  M. 


RELIGIOUS    SERVICE. 


Long  before  the  hour  of  opening  had  arrived  Albaugh's 
Opera  House  was  crowded  and  the  aisles  filled  with  persons 
standing.  Rev.  Phebe  A.  Hanaford  made  the  invocation  and 
read  Samuel  Longfellow's  beautiful  hymn  of  "Greeting."* 
The  audience  joined  in  the  singing.  Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles  read 
the  26th  chapter  of  Acts,  which  was  followed  by  the  singing 
of  "  Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee."  Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Black- 
well  offered  prayer,  after  which  Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw  delivered 
the  sermon. 

Miss  Shaw.  The  passage  of  Scripture  to  which  we  invite  your  attention  this 
afternoon  will  be  found  in  the  26th  chapter  of  Acts  and  the  19th  verse  : 

"Whereupon,  O  King  Agrippa,  I  was  not  disobedient  unto  the  heavenly 
vision.*' 

In  the  midst  of  the  beauty  of  his  Oriental  home  the  psalmist  caught  the 
vision  of  the  events  in  the  midst  of  which  you  and  I  are  living  to-day. 
And  though  he  wrought  the  vision  into  the  wonderful  prophecy  of  the 
68th  psalm,  yet  so  new  and  strange  were  the  thoughts  to  men,  that  for 
thousands  of  years  they  failed  to  catch  its  spirit  and  understand  its  power. 
The  vision  which  appeared  to  David  was  a  world  lost  in  sin.  He  heard  its 
cry  for  deliverance,  he  saw  its  uplifted  hands.  Everywhere  the  eyes  of  good 
men  were  turned  toward  the  skies  for  help.  For  ages  had  they  striven  against 
the  forces  of  evil ;  they  had  sought,  by  every  device,  to  turn  back  the  flood- 
tide  of  base  passion  and  avarice,  but  all  to  no  purpose.  It  seemed  as  if  all 
men  were  engulfed  in  one  common  ruin.  Patient,  sphinx-like,  sat  woman, 
limited  by  sin,  limited  by  social  custom,  limited  byfa'se  theories,  limited  by 
bigotry  and  by  creeds,  listening  to  the  tramp  of  the  weary  millions  as  they 
passed  on  through  the  centuries,  patiently  toiling  and  waiting,  humbly  bear- 
ing the  pain  and  weariness  which  seemed  to  fall  to  her  lot.  Century  after 
century  came  forth  from  the  divine  life  but  to  pass  into  the  great  eternity; 
and  still  she  toiled  and  still  she  waited.  At  last,  in  the  mute  agony  of  de- 
spair, she  lifted  her  eyes  above  the  earth  to  heaven  and  away  from  the  jar- 
ring strifes  which  surrounded  her,  and  that  which  dawned  upon  her  gaze  was 
so  full  of  wonder  that  her  soul  burst  its  prison-house  of  bondage  as  she  beheld 
the  vision  of  true  womanhood.  She  knew  it  was  not  the  purpose  of  the  Divine 
that  she  should  crouch  beneath  the  bonds  of  custom  and  ignorance.  She 
learned  that  she  was  created  not  from  the  side  of  man,  but  rather  by  the  side 
of  man.  The  world  had  suffered  that  she  had  not  kept  her  divinely-appointed 
place.  Then  she  remembered  the  words  of  prophecy,  that  salvation  was  to  come 
to  the  race  not  through  the  man,  but  through  the  descendant  of  the  woman. 

*Number  15,  page  22. 


Religious  Service.  25 

Recognizing  her  divinely-appointed  mission,  she  cried  out:  "  Speak  now, 
Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth  thee."  And  the  answer  came  :  "  The  Lord 
giveth  the  Word,  and  the  women  that  publish  the  tidings  are  a  great  host." 

To-day  the  vision  is  a  reality.  From  every  land  the  voice  of  woman  is 
heard  proclaiming  the  word  which  is  given  to  her,  and  the  wondering  world, 
which,  for  a  moment  stopped  its  busy  wheel  of  life  that  it  might  smite  and 
jeer  her,  has  at  last  learned  that  wherever  the  intuitions  of  the  human  mind  -**" 
are  called  into  special  exercise,  wherever  the  art  of  persuasive  eloquence  is 
demanded,  wherever  heroic  conduct  is  based  upon  duty  rather  than  im- 
pulse, wherever  her  efforts  in  opening  the  sacred  doors  for  the  benefit  of 
truth  can  avail — in  one  and  all  of  these  respects  woman  greatly  excels  man, 
and  the  wisest  and  best  people  everywhere  feel  that  if  woman  enters  upon  her 
tasks  wielding  her  own  effective  armor,  if  her  inspirations  are  pure  and  holy, 
the  Spirit  Omnipotent,  whose  influence  has  held  sway  in  all  movements  and 
reforms,  whose  voice  has  called  into  its  service  the  great  workmen  of 
every  age,  shall,  in  these  last  days,  fall  especially  upon  woman,  and  if  she 
venture  to  obey,  what  is  man  that  he  should  attempt  to  abrogate  her 
sacred  and  divine  mission?  And,  in  the  presence  of  what  woman  has-^ 
already  accomplished  who  shall  say  that  a  true  woman — noble  in  humility, 
strong  in  her  gentleness,  rising  above  all  selfishness,  gathering  up  the  varied 
gifts  and  accomplishments  to  consecrate  them  to  God  and  humanity — who 
shall  say  that  such  an  one  is  not  in  a  position  to  do  that  for  which  the  world 
will  no  longer  rank  her  other  than  among  the  first  in  the  work  of  human 
redemption?  Then,  influenced  by  lofty  motives,  stimulated  by  the  wail  of 
humanity  and  the  glory  of  God,  woman  may  go  forth  and  enter  into  any 
field  of  usefulness  that  opens  up  before  her. 

Yet  there  are  those  who  still  contend  that  men  only  are  able  to  reason  out  the  ** 
problems  of  life.   We  to-day  do  not  grant  this.    But  were  it  true,  there  are  other 
avenues  to  trnth  than  that  which  lies  through  the  uncertain  by-ways  of  reason. 
To  assume  that  it  were  not  so  is  to  know  why  heads  and  not  hearts  were  made^- 

Some  of  the  deepest,  profoundest  truths  that  have  ever  come  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  race  were  felt,  not  reasoned  out.  "  The  world  by  wisdom,  knew 
not  God."  The  Divine  Master  and  Son  of  God  taught  that  a  pure  heart 
and  upright  life  would  quicken  the  intellect — not  "  Become  learned  and  you 
shall  know,"  but  "  Obey  and  you  shall  understand."  Up  through  the  uni- 
verse the  Lord  himself  has  cast  a  highway  by  which  we  may  arrive  at  spirit-' 
ual  and  human  freedom  ;  not  by  knowledge,  but  by  truth,  and  the  deepest 
insights  of  truth  are  given,  not  by  the  intellect,  but  by  love. 

Who,  then,  but  the  mother-heart  of  the  race  shall  be  able  to  read  to  its  deep- 
est depths  the  mystery?     She  shall  be  able  to  unearth  its  profoundest  secrets. 

In  the  Scrip'ure  from  which  the  text  is  taken  we  recognize  a  universal  law 

which  has  been  the  experience  of  every  one  of  us.     Paul  is  telling  the  story 

of  a  vision  he  saw,  which  became  the  inspiration   of  his  life,  the  turning 

point  where  his  whole  life  was  changed,  when,  in  obedience  to  that  vision, 

3 


26  International  Council  of  Women. 

he  put  himself  in  relation  to  the  power  to  which  he  belonged,  and,  recogniz- 
ing in  that  One  which  appeared  to  him  on  his  way  from  Jerusalem  to  Damas- 
cus his  Divine  Master,  he  also  recognized  that  the  purpose  of  his  life  could 
be  fulfilled  only  when,  in  obedience  to  that  Master,  he  caught  and  assimilated 
to  himself  the  nature  of  Him  whose  servant  he  was. 

He  had  been  recounting  the  story  of  this  vision  to  the  king  and  his  court. 
He  recalled  how  he  had  gone  as  a  persecutor  from  Jerusalem  to  Damascus, 
and  how  he  had  had  manifested  to  him  on  his  way  the  vision  which  changed 
the  whole  tone  of  his  life.  A  Voice,  claiming  him  as  His  disciple,  spoke 
unto  his  soul,  and  spoke  the  word  which  turned  him  from  his  old  prejudices  and 
purposes  into  a  new  channel  and  a  new  life.  He  who  had  been  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  the  persecutor  of  the  disciples  of  the  Lord,  became  Paul,  the  pris- 
oner of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Permit  me  to  use  this  vision,  which  is  so 
familiar  to  us  all,  as  a  type  of  that  which  must  appear  to  every  one  of  us 
who  is  able  to  do  anything  for  God  and  humanity. 

Every  reformer  the  world  has  ever  seen  has  had  a  similar  experience. 
Every  truth  which  has  been  taught  to  humanity  has  passed  through  a  like 
channel.  No  one  of  God's  children  has  ever  gone  forth  to  the  world  who 
has  not  first  had  revealed  to  him  his  mission  in  a  vision. 

To  this  Jew,  bound  by  the  prejudices  of  past  generations,  weighed  down 
by  the  bigotry  of  human  creeds,  educated  in  the  schools  of  an  effete  philos- 
ophy, struggling  through  the  darkness  and  gloom  which  surrounded  him, 
when  as  a  persecutor  he  sought  to  annihilate  the  disciples  of  a  new  faith, 
there  came  this  vision  into  his  life,  there  dawned  the  electric  light  of  a 
great  truth,  which,  found  beneath  the  hatred  and  pride  and  passion  which 
filled  his  life  and  heart,  the  divine  germ  which  is  implanted  in  the  soul  of 
each  one  of  God's  children.  The  divine  within  the  man  recognized  the 
light  and  voice  of  the  Divine,  and  answered  to  the  voice  which  spoke  from 
without  :  "  Speak,  Lord,  who  art  Thou?"  and  the  Truth  spoke  unto  him, 
"  I  am  Jesus,  whom  thou  persecutest." 

Then  came  crowding  through  his  mind  new  queries :  "  Can  it  be  that  my 
fathers  were  wrong,  and  that  their  philosophy  and  religion  does  not  contain 
all  there  is  of  truth  ?  Can  it  be  that  outside  of  all  we  have  known  there  lies  a 
great  unexplored  universe  of  truth  to  which  the  mind  of  man  can  yet  attain  ?  " 
And,  filled  with  the  divine  purpose,  he  opened  his  heart  to  receive  the  new 
truth  which  came  to  him  from  the  vision  which  God  revealed  to  his  soul. 

All  down  through  the  centuries  God  has  been  revealing  in  visions  the 
great  truths  which  have  lifted  the  race  step  by  step,  until  to-day  womanhood, 
in  this  sunset  hour  of  the  nineteenth  century,  is  gathered  here  from  the  East 
and  the  West,  the  North  and  the  South,  women  of  every  land,  of  every  race, 
of  all  religious  beliefs.  But  diverse  and  varied  as  are  our  races,  diverse 
and  varied  as  are  our  theories,  diverse  as  are  our  religious  beliefs,  yet  we  come 
together  here  with  one  harmonious  purpose — that  of  lifting  humanity  into  a 
higher,  purer,  truer  life. 


Religious  Service.  27 

To  one  has  come  the  vision  of  political  freedom.  She  saw  how  the  avarice 
and  ambition  of  one  class  with  power  made  them  forget  the  rights  of  another. 
She  saw  how  the  unjust  laws  embittered  both — those  who  made  them  and  those 
upon  whom  the  injustice  rested.  She  recognized  the  great  principles  of  uni- 
versal equality,  seeing  that  all  alike  must  be  free  ;  that  humanity  everywhere 
must  be  lifted  out  of  subjection  into  the  free  and  full  air  of  divine  liberty. 

To  another  was  revealed  the  vision  of  social  freedom.  She  saw  that  sin 
which  crushed  the  lives  of  one  class  rested  lightly  on  the  lives  of  the  other. 
She  saw  its  blighting  effect  on  both,  and  she  lifted  up  her  voice  and  de- 
manded that  there  be  recognized  no  sex  in  sin.  Another  has  come  hither, 
who,  gazing  about  her,  saw  men  brutalized  by  the  rum  fiend,  the  very  life  of 
a  nation  threatened,  and  the  power  of  the  liquor  traffic,  with  its  hand  on  the 
helm  of  state,  guiding  her,  with  sails  full  spread,  straight  upon  the  rocks  to 
destruction.  Then,  looking  away  from  earth,  she  beheld  s*  vision  of  what  the 
race  and  our  nation  might  become  with  all  its  possibility  of  wealth,  with  its 
possibility  of  power,  if  freed  from  this,  and  forth  upon  her  mission  of  deliv- 
erance she  sped  her  way. 

Another  beheld  a  vision  of  what  it  is  to  be  learned,  to  explore  the  great 
fields  of  knowledge  the  Infinite  has  spread  out  before  the  world.  And  this 
vision  has  driven  her  out  from  the  seclusion  of  her  own  quiet  life  that  she 
might  give  this  great  truth  to  womanhood  everywhere. 

By  the  shores  of  the  Ganges  sat  a  young  woman  upon  whom  had  dawned 
a  vision  of  deliverance — deliverance  to  thousands  of  her  own  kind — and, 
breaking  away  from  the  customs  of  centuries,  she  is  revealing  to  the  world 
the  vision  that  dawned  upon  her  there  of  what  India  might  become  when  her 
child  widows  were  free  to  carry  the  gospel  of  liberty  to  her  secluded  millions. 
And  so  we  come,  each  bearing  her  torch  of  living  truth,  casting  over  the 
world  the  light  of  the  vision  that  dawned  upon  her  own  soul. 

But  there  is  still  another  vision  which  reaches  above  earth,  beyond  time — 
a  vision  which  has  dawned  upon  many  that  they  are  here  not  to  do  their 
own  work,  but  the  will  of  Him  who  sent  them.  And  the  woman  who  rec-*^ 
ognizes  the  still  higher  truth  recognizes  the  great  power  to  which  she  belongs 
and  what  her  life  may  become  when,  in  submission  to  that  Master,  she  takes^ 
upon  herself  the  nature  of  Him  whom  she  serves.  We  will  notice  in  the 
second  place  the  purpose  of  all  these  visions  which  have  come  to  us. 

Paul  was  not  permitted  to  dwell  on  the  vision  of  truth  which  came  to 
him.  God  had  a  purpose  in  its  manifestation,  and  that  purpose  is  revealed 
when  God  said  to  the  wonder-stricken  servant,  "Arise!  for  I  have  ap- 
peared unto  thee  for  this  purpose,  not  that  thou  behold  the  truth  for  thy- 
self, but  to  make  thee  a  minister  and  a  witness  both  of  that  which  thou  hast 
already  seen  and  of  other  truths  which  I  shall  reveal  unto  thee.  Go  unto 
the  Gentiles.  Give  them  the  truth  which  thou  shalt  receive  that  their  eyes 
may  be  opened,  and  that  they  may  be  turned  from  darkness  to  light;  that 
they,  too,  may  receive  a  like  inheritance  with  thyself." 


28  International  Council  of  Women. 

Not  that  they  to  whom  the  vision  comes  may  study  its  effect  upon  men, 
if  it  were  revealed  to  them,  not  that  they  may  speculate  upon  the  expedi- 
ency of  its  practical  operation  over  human  lives,  not  that  God  lets  those  to 
whom  he  reveals  the  truth  decide  as  to  whether  the  rest  shall  receive  it  or 
not,  not  that  they  are  to  be  the  favored  repositories  into  which  the  Divine 
shall  pour  His  sacred  secrets;  but  that  they  to  whom  the  truth  is  revealed 
may  carry  it  to  a  waiting  race.     This,  then,  is  God's  lesson  to  you  and  to  me. 

He  opens  before  our  eyes  the  vision  of  a  great  truth,  and  for  a  moment 
He  permits  our  wondering  gaze  to  rest  upon  it;  then  he  bids  us  go  forth. 
Jacob  of  old  saw  the  vision  of  God's  messengers  going  forth  up  and  down 
the  world,  up  and  down  the  mount  of  visions,  ascending  and  descending, 
but  none  of  them  were  standing  still. 

Herein,  then,  lies  the  secret  of  the  success  of  the  reformer.  First  the  vision, 
then  the  purpose  of  the  vision.  "  I  was  not  disobedient  unto  the  heavenly 
vision."  This  is  the  manly  and  noble  confession  of  one  of  the  world's 
greatest  reformers,  and  in  it  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  secrets  of  the  success 
of  his  divinely-appointed  mission.  The  difference  between  tlje  Saul  of  Tar- 
sus and  Paul  the  Prisoner  of  the  Lord  was  measured  by  his  obedience.  This, 
too,  is  a  universal  law,  true  of  the  life  of  every  reformer,  who,  having  had 
revealed  to  him  a  vision  of  the  great  truth,  has  in  obedience  to  that  vision 
carried  it  to  humanity.  Though  at  first  he  holds  the  truth  to  himself,  and 
longs  to  be  lifted  up  by  its  power,  he  soon  learns  that  there  is  a  giving  forth 
of  that  which  one  possesses  which  enriches  the  giver,  and,  that  the  more 
he  gives  of  his  vision  to  men  the  richer  it  becomes,  the  brighter  it  grows, 
until  it  illuminates  all  his  pathway.  This  was  the  experience  of  Paul,  and 
though  we  saw  him  this  afternoon  in  our  Scripture  lesson  on  trial  for  his  life, 
yet  his  words  are  those  of  a  conqueror,  and  ring  forth  with  such  a  triumphant 
tone  as  for  a  moment  makes  us  forget  that  they  are  the  utterance  of  a  pris- 
oner, and  not  of  one  who  has  become  a  conqueror  over  all  his  foes. 

Yet  his  life  was  not  an  idle  dream  ;  it  was  a  constant  struggle  against  the 
very  people  whom  he  tried  to  save ;  his  greatest  foes  were  those  to  whom  he 
was  sent.  He  had  learned  the  lesson  all  reformers  must  sooner  or  later  learn; 
that  the  world  never  welcomes  its  deliverers  save  with  the  dungeon,  the  fagot, 
or  the  cross.  No  man  or  woman  has  ever  sought  to  lead  his  fellows  to  a 
higher  and  better  mode  of  life  without  learning  the  power  of  the  world's 
ingratitude ;  and  though  at  times  popularity  may  follow  in  the  wake  of  a 
reformer,  yet  the  reformer  knows  popularity  is  not  love.  The  world  will 
support  you  when  you  have  compelled  it  to  do  so  by  manifestations  of  power, 
but  it  will  shrink  from  you  as  soon  as  power  and  greatness  are  no  longer  on 
your  side.  This  is  the  penalty  paid  by  good  people  who  sacrifice  themselves 
for  others.  They  must  live  without  sympathy ;  their  feelings  will  be  misun- 
derstood; their  efforts  will  be  uncomprehended.  Like  Paul,  they  will  be 
betrayed  by  friends;  like  Christ  in  the  agony  of  Gethsemane,  they  must  bear 
their  struggle  alone. 


Religious  Service.  29 

Our  reverence  for  the  reformers  of  the  past  is  posterity's  judgment  of 
them.  But  to  them,  what  is  that  now?  They  have  passed  into  the  shadows 
where  neither  our  voice  of  praise  or  blame  disturbs  their  repose. 

This  is  the  hardest  lesson  the  reformer  has  to  learn.  When,  with  soul 
aglow  with  the  light  of  a  great  truth,  she,  in  obedience  to  the  vision,  turns 
to  take  it  to  the  needy  one,  and,  instead  of  finding  a  world  ready  to  rise 
up  and  receive  her,  she  finds  it  wrapped  in  the  swaddling  clothes  of 
error,  eagerly  seeking  to  win  others  to  its  conditions  of  slavery.  She  longs 
to  make  humanity  free;  she  listens  to  their  conflicting  creeds,  and  longs  to 
save  them  from  the  misery  they  endure.  She  knows  that  there  is  no  form 
of  slavery  more  bitter  or  arrogant  than  error,  that  truth,  alone,  can  make 
man  free,  and  she  longs  to  bring  the  heart  of  the  world  and  the  heart  of  truth 
together  that  the  truth  may  exercise  its  transforming  power  over  the  life  of 
the  world.  The  greatest  test  of  the  reformer's  courage  comes  when,  with 
a  warm,  earnest  longing  for  humanity,  she  breaks  for  it  the  bread  of  truth 
and  the  world  turns  from  this  life-giving  power  and  asks,  instead  of  bread, 
a  stone. 

It  is  just  here  that  so  many  of  God's  workmen  fail  and  themselves  need 
to  turn  back  to  the  vision  as  it  has  appeared  to  them,  and  to  gather  fresh 
courage  and  new  inspiration  for  the  future.  This,  my  sisters,  we  all  must 
do  if  we  would  succeed.  The  reformer  may  be  inconsistent,  she  may  be  stern 
or  even  impatient,  but  if  the  world  feels  that  she  is  in  earnest  she  can  not 
fail.  Let  the  truth  which  she  desires  to  teach  first  take  possession  of  her- 
self. Every  woman  who  to-day  goes  out  into  the  world  with  a  truth,  who 
has  not  herself  become  possessed  of  that  truth,  had  better  stay  at  home. 

Who  would  have  dreamed,  when  at  that  great  meeting  in  London  some 
years  ago  the  arrogance  and  pride  of  men  excluded  from  its  body  the  women 
whom  God  had  moved  to  lift  up  their  voices  in  behalf  of  the  baby  that  was 
sold  by  the  pound,  who  would  have  dreamed  that  that  very  exclusion  would 
be  the  key-note  of  woman's  freedom  ?  That  out  of  the  prejudice  of  that  hour 
God  should  be  able  to  flash  upon  the  crushed  hearts  of  those  excluded  the 
grand  vision  which  we  see  manifested  here  to-day?  That  out  of  a  longing 
for  the  liberty  of  a  portion  of  the  race,  God  should  be  able  to  show  to  women 
the  still  larger,  grander  vision  of  the  freedom  of  all  human  kind  ? 

Grand  as  is  this  vision  which  meets  us  here,  it  is  but  the  dawning  of  a 
new  day  ;  and  as  the  first  beams  of  morning  light  give  promise  of  the 
radiance  which  shall  envelop  the  earth  when  the  sun  shall  have  arisen  in  all 
its  splendor,  so  there  comes  to  us  a  prophecy  of  that  glorious  day  when  the 
vision  which  we  are  now  beholding,  which  is  beaming  in  the  soul  of  one, 
shall  enter  the  hearts  and  transfigure  the  lives  of  all.     *    *    * 

During  the  collection  the  audience  joined  in  singing  "God 
is  Love"  and  "  Is  this  a  Fast  for  me,"  after  which  the  bene- 
diction was  pronounced  by  Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell. 


30  International  Council  of  Women. 


FORMAL  OPENING  OF  THE  COUNCIL. 

Monday,  March  25,  10  A.  M. 

Victor  Hugo's  prophecy,  "that  the  nineteenth  century 
belongs  to  woman,"  seemed  fulfilled  as  one  gazed  upon  the 
scene  presented  at  Albaugh's  Opera  House  this  morning. 
Under  the  shadow  of  the  Capitol,  made  historic  by  the  fiery 
eloquence  of  a  long  line  of  American  patriots,  who  have  led 
the  advance-guard  of  the  world's  onward  march  to  liberty, 
were  assembled  an  immense  audience  of  equally  patriotic 
women  from  every  part  of  the  United  States,  whose  faithful 
services  to  their  country,  alike  in  peace  and  war,  have  entitled 
them  to  recognition  as  citizens  of  a  republic  in  the  parliaments 
of  the  world. 

The  vast  auditorium,  perfect  in  its  proportions  and  arrange- 
ments, was  richly  decorated  with  the  flags  of  all  nations  and 
of  every  State  in  the  Union.  The  platform  was  fragrant  with 
evergreens  and  flowers,  brilliant  with  rich  furniture,  crowded 
with  distinguished  women,  while  soft  music,  with  its  universal 
language,  attuned  all  hearts  to  harmony.  The  beautiful  por- 
trait of  the  sainted  Lucretia  Mott,  surrounded  with  smilax 
and  lilies  of  the  valley,  seemed  to  sanctify  the  whole  scene 
and  to  give  a  touch  of  pathos  to  all  the  proceedings. 

The  hour  was  impressive  and  significant  as  representative 
women  gathered  on  the  platform  from  England,  Scotland,  Ire- 
land, France,  Denmark,  Norway,  Finland,  India,  Canada,  and 
every  part  of  the  United  States,  all  honored  guests  of  the 
National  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 

In  calling  the  meeting  to  order,  Miss  Anthony  remarked  : 

As  you  have  noticed  in  the  call  and  in  the  various  announcements  for  this 
Council,  the  specific  purpose  in  calling  it  during  this  year  and  in  this  coun- 
try was  because  of  the  fact  that  the  first  convention  ever  held  in  the  world, 
by  women,  occurred  just  forty  years  ago.  The  meeting  will  be  opened  with 
prayer  by  Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell,  who  was  the  first  woman  ever 
ordained  as  a  minister  in  this  nation,  and,  I  think,  in  any  nation  on  the 
globe. 

After  the  invocation  by  Mrs.  Blackwell,  Elizabeth  Boynton 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  31 

Harbert  read  the  hymn  which  she  had  written  for  the  occasion, 
<*  The  Promised  Land."     Addressing  the  audience,  she  said  : 

Will  you  join  with  us,  carrying  with  the  reading  your  thought,  in  order 
that  you  may  unite  in  singing  the  twelfth  hymn,  entitled  "The  Promised 
Land,"  into  which  we  shall  enter  with  this  our  Moses  and  our  Joshua  (re- 
ferring to  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Miss  Anthony)  this  significant  morning. 

The  entire  audience  joined  in  the  singing  of  the  hymn. 

Miss  Anthony  :  The  notice  issued  forty  years  ago  for  that  first  convention, 
if  I  remember  rightly,  did  not  have  any  signatures  attached,  but,  nevertheless, 
the  two  moving  spirits  in  originating  the  call  and  in  carrying  forward  the 
meeting  were  those  of  our  sainted  Lucretia  Mott,  of  Philadelphia,  and  Eliz- 
abeth Cady  Stanton,  who  is  with  us  to-day.  Without  any  particular  words 
that  shall  call  to  your  mind  the  vast  change  in  the  world  these  last  forty 
years,  I  will  ~ay  that  forty  years  ago  women  had  no  place  anywhere  except 
in  their  homes,  no  pecuniary  independence,  no  purpose  in  life  save  that 
which  came  through  marriage.  From  a  condition,  as  many  of  you  can  re- 
member, in  which  no  woman  thought  of  such  a  thing  as  earning  her  bread 
by  any  other  means  than  sewing,  teaching,  cooking,  or  factory  work, 
in  these  later  years  the  way  has  been  opened  to  every  avenue  of  industry — 
to  every  profession — whereby  woman  to-day  stands  almost  the  peer  of 
man  in  her  advantages  for  pecuniary  independence.  What  is  true  in  the 
world  of  work  is  true  in  education,  is  true  everywhere. 

Men  have  granted  us,  in  the  privileges  and  civil  rights  of  society,  which 
we  have  been  demanding,  everything,  almost,  but  the  pivotal  right,  the 
one  that  underlies  all  other  rights,  the  right  with  which  citizens  of  this 
republic  may  protect  themselves. 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  this  morning  the  woman  who 
not  only  joined  with  Mrs.  Mott  in  calling  the  first  convention,  but  who  for 
the  last  twenty  years  nearly  has  been  President  of  the  National  Woman  Suf- 
frage Association — Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton. 

With  enthusiastic  clapping  of  hands  and  waving  of  hand- 
kerchiefs, the  audience  arose  to  honor  Mrs.  Stanton. 

ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME. 

Mrs.  Stanton  :  We  are  assembled  here  to-day  to  celebrate  the  fortieth 
anniversary  of  the  first  organized  demand  made  by  women  for  the  right  of 
suffrage.  The  initiative  steps  were  taken  in  my  native  State.  In  1848  two 
conventions  were  held  in  Central  New  York,  and  the  same  year  the  Mar- 
ried Women's  Property  Bill  passed  the  legislature.  Other  conventions  were 
soon  called  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and  other  States, 
one  after  another,  adopted-  New  York's  advance  legislation.     This  started 


32  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  greatest  movement  for  human  liberty  recorded  on  the  pages  of  history — 
a  demand  for  freedom  to  one-half  the  entire  race  ;  the  key-note  struck  in  this 
country  in  '48  has  been  echoed  round  the  world.  And  to-day,  to  celebrate 
our  fortieth  anniversary,  we  have  representatives  in  person  or  by  letter  from 
nearly  every  State  in  the  Union,  from  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany, 
Finland,  Italy,  Sweden,  India,  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Russia.  It  has  been 
our  custom  to  mark  the  passing  years  by  holding  meetings  of  the  suffrage 
•  societies  on  each  decade,  but  for  this  we  decided  a  broader  recognition  of  all 
the  reform  associations  that  have  been  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  suffrage 
agitation  in  the  Old  World  as  well  as  the  New. 

In  the  great  National  and  State  conventions  for  education,  temperance, 
and  religion,  even  thirty  years  ago,  woman's  voice  was  never  heard.  The 
battles  fought  by  the  pioneers  in  the  suffrage  movement  to  secure  a  foothold 
for  woman  on  these  platforms  have  been  eloquently  described  many  times 
by  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Lucy  Stone,  and  Antoinette  Brown,  and  I  hope  during 

•  this  Council  they  will  be  rehearsed  once  more,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who, 
while  holding  the  vantage  ground  they  secured,  are  afraid   of  the  principles 

.  by  which  it  was  gained.  The  civil  and  political  position  of  woman,  when  I 
first  understood  its  real  significance,  was  enough  to  destroy  all  faith  in  the 
vitality  of  republican  principles.  Half  a  century  ago  the  women  of  America 
were  bond  slaves,  under  the  old  common  law  of  England.  Their  rights  of 
person  and  property  were  under  the  absolute  control  of  fathers  and  husbands. 
They  were  shut  out  of  the  schools  and  colleges,  the  trades  and  professions, 
and  all  offices  under  government ;  paid  the  most  meager  wages  in  the  ordi- 
nary industries  of  life,  and  denied  everywhere  the  necessary  opportunities  for 

f  their  best  development.     Worse  still,  women  had  no  proper  appreciation  of 

I  themselves  as  factors  in  civilization.  Believing  self-denial  a  higher  virtue 
than  self-development,  they  ignorantly  made  ladders  of  themselves  by  which 
fathers,  husbands,  brothers,  and  sons  reached  their  highest  ambitions,  creat- 
ing an  impassable  gulf  between  them  and  those  they  loved  that  no  magnetic 
chords  of  affection  or  gratitude  could  span.  Nothing  was  more  common 
forty  years  ago  than  to  see  the  sons  of  a  family  educated,  while  the  daughters 
remained  in  ignorance  ;  husbands  at  ease  in  the  higher  circles,  in  which  their 
wives  were  unprepared  to  move.  Like  the  foolish  virgins  in  the  parable, 
*  women  everywhere  in  serving  others  forgot  to  keep  their  own  lamps  trimmed 
and  burning,  and  when  the  great  feasts  of  life  were  spread,  to  them  the  doors 
were  shut. 

Four  years  ago,  at  a  reception  in  Liverpool,  given  to  Miss  Anthony  and 
myself,  the  question  of  an  international  convention  was  discussed,  and  so 
favorably  received  that  committees  of  correspondence  were  appointed  to 
ascertain  what  the  general  feeling  might  be.  While  the  response  from  the 
different  countries  was  encouraging,  the  general  feeling  seemed  to  point  to 
America   as  the  country  to  make  the  first  experiment.     Accordingly    the 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  33 

National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  assumed  the  responsibility  of  calling 
this  International  Council. 

Though  we  can  not  all  share  in  the  honors  of  the  toil  that  has  made  this 
grand  gathering  possible,  we  can  share  in  the  joy  of  welcoming  to  our  shores 
the  noble  women  from  foreign  lands.  We  can  benefit,  too,  in  the  broader 
interests  and  more  liberal  opinions  that  association  with  the  people  of  other 
countries  must  necessarily  bring  to  us. 

"The  world  is  my  country  and  all  mankind  my  countrymen  "  is  a  motto 
that  can  not  be  echoed  and  re-echoed  round  the  globe  too  often,  to  keep 
our  sympathies  alive  to  the  weal  and  woe  of  the  human  race.  In  welcoming 
representatives  from  other  lands  here  to-day,  we  do  not  feel  that  you  are 
strangers  and  foreigners,  for  the  women  of  all  nationalities,  in  the  artificial 
distinctions  of  sex,  have  a  universal  sense  of  injustice,  that  forms  a  common 
bond  of  union  between  them. 

Whether  our  feet  are  compressed  in  iron  shoes,  our  faces  hidden  with  veils 
and  masks,  whether  yoked  with  cows  to  draw  the  plow  through  its  furrows, 
or  classed  with  idiots,  lunatics,  and  criminals  in  the  laws  and  constitutions 
of  the  state,  the  principle  is  the  same,  for  the  humiliations  of  spirit  are  as 
real  as  the  visible  badges  of  servitude.  A  difference  in  government,  religion, 
laws,  and  social  customs  makes  but  little  change  in  the  relative  status  of 
woman  to  the  self-constituted  governing  classes,  so  long  as  subordination  in 
all  nations  is  the  rule  of  her  being.  Through  suffering  we  have  learned  the 
open  sesame  to  the  hearts  of  each  other.  There  is  a  language  of  universal 
significance,  more  subtle  than  that  used  in  the  busy  marts  of  trade,  that 
should  be  called  the  mother-tongue,  by  which  with  a  sigh  or  a  tear,  a  gesture, 
a  glance  of  the  eye,  we  know  the  experiences  of  each  other  in  the  varied 
forms  of  slavery.  With  the  spirit  forever  in  bondage,  it  is  the  same  whether 
housed  in  golden  cages,  with  every  want  supplied,  or  wandering  in  the 
dreary  deserts  of  life  friendless  and  forsaken.  Now  that  our  globe  is  girdled 
with  railroads,  steamships,  and  electric  wires,  every  pulsation  of  your  hearts 
is  known  to  us.  Long  ago  we  heard  the  deep  yearnings  of  your  souls  for 
freedom  responsive  to  our  own.  Mary  Wolstonecraft,  Mesdames  de  Stael 
and  Roland,  George  Sand,  Frederica  Bremer,  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning, 
Frances  Wright,  and  George  Eliot  have  pictured  alike  the  wrongs  of  woman 
in  poetry  and  prose.  Though  divided  by  vast  mountain  ranges,  boundless 
oceans  and  plains,  yet  the  psalms  of  our  lives  have  been  in  the  same  strain, 
too  long,  alas  '  in  the  minor  key  j  for  hopes  deferred  have  made  the  bravest 
hearts  sometimes  despairing.  But  the  same  great  over-soul  has  been  our 
hope  and  inspiration.  The  steps  of  progress  already  achieved  in  many 
countries  should  encourage  us  to  tune  our  harps  anew  to  songs  of  victory. 

It  is  with  great  satisfaction  we  also  welcome  here  to-day  representatives  of 
our  own  country-women  from  thirty-one  different  associations  of  moral  and 
philanthropic  reforms. 


34  International  Council  of  Women. 

Although  all  these  are  the  natural  outgrowths  of  the  demands  made  and 
the  basic  principles  laid  down  by  those  who  first  claimed  equal,  civil,  and 
political  rights  for  women,  yet  this  is  the  first  time  we  have  met  on  the  same 
platform,  to  advocate  the  same  measures  in  carrying  on  the  varied  reforms  in 
which  we  are  mutually  interested.  I  think  most  of  us  have  come  to  feel  that 
a  voice  in  the  laws  is  indispensable  to  achieve  success  ;  that  these  great  moral 
struggles  for  higher  education,  temperance,  peace,  the  rights  of  labor,  re- 
ligious freedom,  international  arbitration,  are  all  questions  to  be  finally 
adjusted  by  the  action  of  government,  and  without  a  direct  voice  in  legisla- 
tion, woman's  influence  will  be  eventually  lost. 

Experience  has  fully  proved,  that  sympathy  as  a  civil  agent  is  vague  and 
powerless  until  caught  and  chained  in  logical  propositions  and  coined  into 
law.  When  every  prayer  and  tear  represents  a  ballot,  the  mothers  of  the  race 
will  no  longer  weep  in  vain  over  the  miseries  of  their  children.  The  active 
interest  women  are  taking  in  all  the  great  questions  of  the  day  is  in  strong 
contrast  with  the  apathy  and  indifference  in  which  we  found  them  half  a  cen- 
tury ago,  and  the  contrast  in  their  condition  between  now  and  then  is 
equally  marked.  Those  who  inaugurated  the  movement  for  woman's  enfran- 
chisement, who  for  long  years  endured  the  merciless  storm  of  ridicule  and 
persecution,  mourned  over  by  friends,  ostracized  in  social  life,  scandalized 
by  enemies,  denounced  by  the  pulpit,  scarified  and  caricatured  by  the  press, 
may  well  congratulate  themselves  on  the  marked  change  in  public  sentiment 
that  this  magnificent  gathering  of  educated  women  from  both  hemispheres  so 
triumphantly  illustrates. 

Now  even  married  women  enjoy,  in  a  measure,  their  rights  of  person  and 
property.  They  can  make  contracts,  sue  and  be  sued,  testify  in  courts  of 
justice,  and  with  honor  dissolve  the  marriage  relation  when  it  becomes  intol- 
erable. Now  most  of  the  colleges  are  open  to  girls,  and  they  are  rapidly 
taking  their  places  in  all  the  profitable  industries,  and  in  many  of  the  offices 
under  Government.  They  are  in  the  professions,  too,  as  lawyers,  doctors, 
editors,  professors  in  colleges,  and  ministers  in  the  pulpits.  Their  political 
status  is  so  far  advanced  that  they  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  citizens  in  two 
Territories,  municipal  suffrage  in  one  State,  and  school  suffrage  in  half  the 
States  of  the  Union.  Here  is  a  good  record  of  the  work  achieved  in  the 
past  half-century  ;  but  we  do  not  intend  to  rest  our  case  until  all  our  rights 
are  secured,  and,  noting  the  steps  of  progress  in  other  countries,  on  which 
their  various  representatives  are  here  to  report,  we  behold  with  satisfaction 
everywhere  a  general  uprising  of  women,  demanding  higher  education  and 
an  equal  place  in  the  industries  of  the  world.  Our  gathering  here  to-day 
is  highly  significant,  in  its  promises  of  future  combined  action.  When, 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  was  there  ever  before  such  an  assemblage  of  able, 
educated  women,  celebrated  in  so  many  varied  walks  of  life,  and  feeling  their 
right  and  ability  to  discuss  the  vital  questions  of  social  life,  religion,  and 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  35 

government?  When  we  think  of  the  vantage-ground  woman  holds  to-day, 
in  spite  of  all  the  artificial  obstacles  she  has  surmounted,  we  are  filled  with 
wonder  as  to  what  the  future  mother  of  the  race  will  be  when  free  to  seek 
her  complete  development. 

Thus  tar  women  have  been  the  mere  echoes  of  men.  Our  laws  and  con- 
stitutions, our  creeds  and  codes,  and  the  customs  of  social  life  are  all  of  mas- 
culine origin.  The  true  woman  is  as  yet  a  dream  of  the  future.  A  just  gov- 
ernment, a  humane  religion,  a  pure  social  life  await  her  coming.  Then,  and 
not  till  then,  will  the  golden  age  of  peace  and  prosperity  be  ours.  This 
gathering  is  significant,  too,  in  being  held  in  the  greatest  republic  on  which 
the  sun  ever  shone — a  nation  superior  to  every  other  on  the  globe  in  all  that 
goes  to  make  up  a  free  and  mighty  people — boundless  territory,  magnificent 
scenery,  mighty  forests,  lakes  and  rivers,  and  inexhaustible  wealth  in  agri- 
culture, manufactures,  and  mines — a  country  where  the  children  of  the 
masses  in  our  public  schools  have  all  the  appliances  of  a  complete  education — 
books,  charts,  maps,  every  advantage,  not  only  in  the  rudimental  but  in 
many  of  the  higher  branches,  alike  free  at  their  disposal.  In  the  Old  World 
the  palace  on  the  hill  is  the  home  of  nobility  ;  here  it  is  the  public  school  or 
university  for  the  people,  where  the  rich  and  the  poor,  side  by  side,  take  the 
prizes  for  good  manners  and  scholarship.  Thus  the  value  of  real  character 
above  all  artificial  distinctions — the  great  lesson  of  democracy — is  early 
learned  by  our  children, 

This  is  the  country,  too,  where  every  man  has  a  right  to  self-government, 
to  exercise  his  individual  conscience  and  judgment  on  all  matters  of  public 
interest.  Here  we  have  no  entangling  alliances  in  church  and  slate,  no 
tithes  to  be  paid,  no  livings  to  be  sold,  no  bartering  for  places  by  digni- 
taries among  those  who  officiate  at  the  altar,  no  religious  test  for  those  elected 
to  take  part  in  government. 

Here,  under  the  very  shadow  of  the  Capitol  of  this  great  nation,  whose 
dome  is  crowned  with  the  Goddess  of  Liberty,  the  women  from  many  lands 
have  assembled  at  last  to  claim  their  rightful  place,  as  equal  factors,  in  the 
great  movements  of  the  nineteenth  century,  so  we  bid  our  distinguished 
guests  welcome,  thrice  welcome,  to  our  triumphant  democracy.  I  hope  they 
will  be  able  to  stay  long  enough  to  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  our  vast  posses- 
sions, to  see  what  can  be  done  in  a  moral  as  well  as  material  point  of  view 
in  a  government  of  the  people.  In  the  Old  World  they  have  governments 
and  people  ;  here  we  have  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the 
people — that  is,  we  soon  shall  have  when  that  important  half,  called  women, 
are  enfranchised,  and  the  laboring  masses  know  how  to  use  the  power  they 
possess.  And  you  will  see  here,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  nations, 
a  church  without  a  pope,  a  state  without  a  king,  and  a  family  without  a 
divinely  ordained  head,  for  our  laws  are  rapidly  making  fathers  and  mothers 
equal  in  the  marriage  relation.    We  call  your  attention,  dear  friends,  to  these 


36  International  Council  of  Women. 

patent  facts,  not  in  a  spirit  of  boasting,  but  that  you  may  look  critically  into 
the  working  of  our  republican  institutions ;  that  when  you  return  to  the  Old 
.World  you  may  help  your  fathers  to  solve  many  of  the  tangled  problems  to 
which  as  yet  they  have  found  no  answer.  You  can  tell  the  Czar  of  Russia 
and  the  Tories  of  England  that  self-government  and  "home  rule  "  are  safe 
and  possible,  proved  so  by  a  nation  of  upward  of  60,000,000  of  people. 

Since  the  inauguration  of  our  movement  most  of  our  noble  coadjutors, 
men  and  women,  have  passed  to  the  unknown  land — Garrison,  Phillips, 
Channing,  Rogers,  Burleigh,  Edward  M.  Davis,  Lucretia  Mott,  Martha  C. 
Wright,  Josephine  Griffing,  Clarina  Nichols,  Frances  Gage,  Paulina  Davis, 
Abby  Foster,  Lydia  Maria  Child,  and  Richard  Mott,  and  many  others, 
together  far  outnumbering  those  who  still  remain  to  watch  and  wait.  The 
vacant  places  on  every  side  warn  us  in  the  sunset  of  life  that  we,  too,  are 
passing  away,  and  that  younger  hands  must  soon  take  up  our  work.  To 
achieve  equality  for  woman  in  every  position  in  life,  and  fit  her  to  maintain 
that  position  with  wisdom  and  dignity,  is  a  work  worthy  to  unite  all  our 
energies  and  attune  our  hearts  in  harmony.  Those  who,  like  the  children  of 
Israel,  have  been  wandering  in  the  wilderness  of  prejudice  and  ridicule  for 
forty  years  must  feel  a  peculiar  tenderness  for  the  young  women  on  whose 
shoulders  we  are  about  to  leave  our  burdens.  Although  we  have  opened  a 
pathway  to  the  promised  land,  and  cleared  up  much  of  the  underbrush  of 
false  sentiment,  logic  and  rhetoric,  intertwisted  and  intertwined  with  law 
and  custom,  blocking  all  avenues  in  starting,  yet  there  are  still  many  obsta- 
cles to  be  encountered  before  the  rough  journey  is  ended.  I  think,  how- 
ever, you  will  find  in  the  bound  volumes  of  "The  Revolution"  and  "Woman's 
Journal,"  and  the  three  huge  volumes  of  the  "  History  of  Woman  Suffrage," 
all  the  necessary  arguments  to  silence  any  reasonable  opponent.  If  these 
fail  we  shall  hope  much  from  the  youngest-born  of  all  our  papers,  "The 
Woman's  Tribune."  If  it  finds  that  arguments  fail,  with  the  daring  of  youth 
it  may  use  some  more  powerful  ammunition  to  drive  all  opposing  forces  from 
the  field  of  battle,  and  overthrow  forever  an  aristocracy  based  on  sex.  The 
younger  women  are  starting  with  greater  advantages  over  us.  They  have  the 
results  of  our  experience  ;  they  have  had  superior  opportunities  for  educa- 
tion, and  will  have  a  more  enlightened  public  sentiment  for  discussion,  and 
more  courage  to  take  the  rights  that  belong  to  them ;  hence  we  may  look  to 
them  for  speedy  conquests. 

In  calling  this  Council  we  anticipated  many  desirable  results.  Aside  from 
the  pleasure  of  mutual  acquaintance  in  meeting  face  to  face  so  many  of  our 
own  country-women,  as  well  as  those  from  foreign  lands,  we  hoped  to  secure 
thorough  national  and  international  organizations  in  all  those  reforms  in 
which  we  are  mutually  interested.  To  come  together  for  a  week  and  part, 
with  the  same  fragmentary  societies  and  clubs,  would  be  the  defeat  of  one- 
half  the  purpose  of  our  gathering. 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  37 

Above  all  things  that  women  need  to-day  in  their  reform  work  is  thorough 
organization,  and  to  this  end  we  must  cultivate  some  esprit  de  corps  of  sex, 
a  generous  trust  in  each  other.  A  difference  of  opinion  on  one  question 
must  not  prevent  us  from  working  unitedly  in  those  on  which  we  agree. 
Above  all  things,  let  us  hold  our  theological  speculations  of  a  future  life  in 
abeyance  to  the  practical  work  of  the  present  existence,  recognizing  all  sects 
alike  and  all  religions — Jew  and  Gentile,  Catholic  and  Protestant — to  be 
held  equally  sacred  in  their  honest  opinions.  We  sincerely  hope  that  the 
proceedings  of  this  Council  as  a  whole  will  be  as  successful  and  satisfactory 
as  our  conventions  in  Washington  invariably  have  been,  and  that  marked 
courtesy  in  public  and  private  will  be  generously  extended  to  all  our  guests. 
We  trust  this  interchange  of  sentiments  and  opinions  may  be  a  fresh  inspira- 
tion to  us  all  in  our  future  work,  and  that  this  Convention  may  be  long 
remembered  as  among  the  most  pleasant  and  profitable  days  of  our  lives. 
As  the  character  of  this  Convention  must  depend  in  a  large  measure  on  what 
those  who  call  it  may  do  and  say,  it  would  be  well  for  us  to  keep  in  mind 
the  responsibility  that  rests  on  each  and  all.  If  it  be  true  that  we  can  judge 
of  the  civilization  of  a  nation  by  the  status  of  its  women,  we  may  do  much 
during  this  Convention  to  elevate  our  institutions  in  the  estimation  of  the 
world. 

Our  form  of  government  is  being  studied  by  leading  statesmen  in  the  Old 
World,  as  never  before;  alike  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  and  the  House  of 
Commons  the  powers  of  our  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial  departments 
have  been  freely  discussed  and  recommended  as  worthy  of  adoption. 

Mr.  Gladstone  says:  "The  American  Constitution  is,  as  far  as  I  can 
see,  the  most  wonderful  work  ever  struck  off  by  the  brain  and  purpose  of 
man."     *     *     * 

Lord  Salisbury  says  :  "  The  Americans  have  a  Senate.  I  wish  we  could 
institute  it  here.  Marvelous  in  its  strength  and  efficiency.  *  *  *  Their 
Supreme  Court  gives  a  stability  to  their  institutions  which,  under  the  vague 
and  mysterious  promises  here,  we  look  for  in  vain."  Such  writers  and  his- 
torians as  Sir  Henry  Maine,  Mackenzie,  Froude,  and  Matthew  Arnold  have 
commented  on  our  democratic  institutions  in  most  complimentary  terms. 
Indeed,  the  whole  tone  of  English  writers  and  travelers  has  entirely  changed 
since  they  amused  the  world  with  ridicule  of  our  people  fifty  years  ago.  It 
is  the  dignity  of  the  Republic,  as  viewed  to-day,  we  are  here  to  represent. 
Closer  bonds  of  friendship  between  the  women  of  different  nations  may  help 
to  strengthen  the  idea  of  international  arbitration  in  the  settlement  of  all 
differences,  that  thus  the  whole  military  system,  now  draining  the  very  life- 
blood  and  wealth  of  the  people  in  the  Old  World,  may  "be  completely  over- 
turned, and  war,  with  its  crimes  and  miseries,  ended  forever. 

The  question  is  continually  asked,  If  women  had  the  right  of  suffrage  how 
would  they  vote  on  national  questions?  I  think  I  might  venture  to  say  that 
the  women  on  this  platform  would  all  be  opposed  to  war.     As  to  the  much- 


38  International  Council  of  Women. 

vexed  question  of  the  fisheries  we  would  say,  in  view  of  our  vast  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  coast,  thousands  of  miles  in  extent,  do  let  Canada  have  three  miles  of 
the  ocean  if  she  wants  it.     If  the  cod  is  the  bone  of  contention,  as  it  is  the 
poorest  of  all  fish,  let  the  Canadians  eat  it  in  peace  so  long  as  we  have  oysters, 
shad,  bass  and  the  delicate  salmon  from  our  Western  lakes  and  California. 
Upon  other  questions  now  up  for  consideration  we  should   probably  be  of 
one  mind.     As  to  a  treaty  with  Russia  to  send  back  her  political  prisoners 
to  be  tortured  in  her  prisons  and  the  mines  of  Siberia,  our  verdict  would  be 
no,  no.     America  must  ever  be  the  great  university  in  which  the  lovers  of 
freedom  may  safely  graduate  with  the  highest  honors,  and  under  our  flag  find 
peace  and   protection.     The  able  statement   by  Stepniak,  the  Russian   ni- 
hilist,   laid    before    our    Senate,  should    be    carefully  read    by  all    of   us, 
that  our    influence    may  be   used    intelligently   against    all    treaties,  com- 
promising, as    they  would,  the    honor    of  a    nation    upholding    the  right 
of  free  speech  and   free  press  in  the  criticism  of  their  rulers  by  the  people. 
As  to  international  copyright,  we  should  no  doubt  say  let  us  have  a  law 
to  that  effect  by  all  means,  because  it  is  fair  and  honest.     Moreover,  since 
we  now  have  our  own  historians,  philosophers,  scientists,  poets,  and  novel- 
ists, and  England  steals  as  much  from  us  as  we  do  from  her,  it  is  evident 
that  sound  policy  and  common  honesty  lie  in  the  same  direction.     As  to  the 
overflowing  Treasury  that  troubles  the  conscience  of  our  good  President,  our 
wisest  women  would  undoubtedly  say,  pay  the  national  debt  and  lighten  the 
taxes  on  the  shoulders  of  the  laboring  masses.     As  to  the  amendments  of  the 
Constitution  now  asked  for  by  some  reformers,  and  a  body  of  the  clergy,  to 
recognize  the  Christian  theology  in  the  Constitution  and  introduce  religious 
tests  into  political  parties  and  platforms  in  direct  violation  of  Article  VI,  clause 
3,  of  the  National  Constitution,  I  think  the  majority  ih  our  woman  suffrage 
associations  would  be  opposed  to  all  such  amendments,  as  they  would  destroy 
the  secular  nature  of  our  Government,  so  carefully  guarded  by  our  fathers 
in  laying  the  foundation  of  the  Republic.     This  freedom  from  all  ecclesias- 
tical entanglements  is  one  of  the  chief  glories  of  our  Government  and  one 
of  the  chief  elements  of  its  success.     We  can  not  too  carefully  guard  against 
all  attempts  at  a  retrogressive  policy  in  this  direction.     If  there  is  one  lesson 
more  plainly  written  than  another  on  the  institutions  of  the  Old  World  it  is 
the  danger  of  a  union  of  church  and  state,  of  civil  and  canon  law,  of  theo- 
logical speculations  in  the  practical  affairs  of  government.     If  the  majority 
of  women  on  the  suffrage  platform  would  vote  thus  wisely  on  five  questions, 
they  may  show  equal  wisdom  on  others  that  may  come  up  for  future  legisla- 
tion. 

On  questions  of  land,  labor,  prohibition,  and  protection  there  would,  no 
doubt,  amongst  us,  be  many  differences  of  opinion,  but  I  think  we  should 
all  agree  that  that  system  of  political  economy  that  secures  the  greatest  bless- 
ings to  the  greatest  number  must  be  the  true  one,  and  those  laws  which 
guard  most  sacredly  the  interests  of  the  many  rather  than  the  few,  we  should 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  39 

vote  for.  When  woman's  voice  is  heard  in  Government  our  legislation 
will  become  more  humane,  and  judgments  in  our  courts  be  tempered  with 
mercy.  Surely  the  mothers  who  rocked  the  cradle  of  this  Republic  may 
be  safely  trusted  to  sustain  their  sires  and  sons  in  all  their  best  efforts  to 
establish  in  the  New  World  a  government  in  which  the  sound  principles 
of  our  Constitution  and  Declaration  of  Independence  may  be  fully  realized, 
in  which  there  shall  be  no  privileged  classes,  but  equal  rights  for  all. 

Under  a  government  and  religion  recognizing  in  rational  beings  the  rights 
of  conscience  and  judgment  in  matters  pertaining  to  their  own  interests, 
above  all  authority  of  church  and  state,  it  needs  no  argument  to  prove  the 
sacredness  of  individual  rights,  the  dignity  of  individual  responsibilities. 
The  solitude  of  every  human  soul,  alike  in  our  moments  of  exaltation  and 
humiliation,  in  our  highest  joys  and  deepest  sorrows,  into  which  no  other 
one  can  ever  fully  enter,  proves  our  birthright  to  supreme  self-sovereignty. 
As  in  all  the  great  emergencies  of  life,  we  must  stand  alone,  and  for  final 
judgment  rely  upon  ourselves,  we  can  not  overestimate  the  necessity  for 
that  liberty  by  which  we  attain  our  highest  development  and  that  knowledge 
that  fits  us  for  self-reliance  and  self-protection. 

Miss  Anthony  then  presented  letters  and  telegrams  of 
greeting  : 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Priscilla  Bright  McLaren,  of  Edin- 
burgh, the  oldes*.  sister  of  John  and  Jacob  Bright,  a  woman  with  a  spirit  as 
beautiful  and  a  culture  as  noble  as  her  brothers'. 

Newington  House,  Edinburgh,  March  8,  1888. 
My  Dear  and  Honored  Friend,  Susan  B.  Anthony : 

It  would  have  been  a'great  privilege  to  have  been  able  to  accept  your  gratifying 
invitation  to  be  present  at  your  Congress.  My  pen  is  too  weak  to  express  all  I  feel 
of  sympathy  with  you,  in  the  idea  which  stimulated  you  to  inaugurate  this  grand 
expression  of  the  progress  which  has  been  made  towards  the  emancipation  of  women 
from  the  fetters  which  law  and  custom  have  woven  around  them  the  world  over. 

It  would  have  been  a  beautiful  closing  to  a  long  life,  fraught  with  much  blessing, 
to  have  become  personally  acquainted  with  the  large-hearted  and  gifted  women,  not 
only  of  your  own  country,  but  from  other  lands,  who  will  gather  round  you  on  this 
great  occasion.  But  it  is  no  small  pleasure  to  be  one  among  the  many  thousands 
who  will  be  represented  there  from  our  nation,  by  the  deputation  which  has  been 
appointed  to  go  in  their  names. 

There  are  two  noble  women  in  Edinburgh  whom  we  would  have  liked  to  have 
sent  to  your  Council — Elizabeth  Pease  Nichol  and  Eliza  Wigham.  They  worked 
in  your  anti-slavery  struggle  at  a  time  when  even  Wilberforce  shrank  from  the  idea 
of  women  taking  an  equal  part  with  men  in  that  holy  work,  lest  it  might  lead  them 
to  seek  for  their  own  emancipation.  I  mention  this  to  show  what  time  and  effort 
have  accomplished  for  women.  When  the  prophetic  spirit  of  so  good  a  man  as 
Wilberforce  dared  hardly  face  such  an  unfolding  of  the  principle  of  freedom,  we 
can  understand  how  it  was  that  Christ,  in  a  much  darker  day,  said  to  his  disciples: 
"  I  have  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  you  can  not  bear  them  now." 

We  send  to  your  Congress  women  amongst  the  most  eloquent  and  gifted  of  our 


40  International  Council  of  Women. 

workers.  Mrs.  Alice  Scatcherd  and  Mrs.  Ashton  Dilke  represent  the  latest  and 
greatest  of  our  political  associations,  the  outcome  of  our  Women's  Suffrage  Socie- 
ties, associations  which  possess  the  virtues  and  additional  strength  which  youth  and 
growing  intelligence  give  to  the  offspring  of  an  honored  parentage.  Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne  sends  Mrs.  Ashton  Dilke  to  represent  their  Women's  Liberal  League. 
She  has  the  double  honor  of  accompanying  your  venerable  and  venerated  President, 
Mrs.  Oady  Stanton,  in  her  voyage  home  from  this  country,  who  seems  to  us;  as  she 
crosses  from  our  land  to  yours,  to  be  a  holy  link  joining  the  two  nations  together. 

Mrs.  Scatcherd' s  work  and  ability  are  best  attested  by  the  many  credentials  she 
brings  over  as  the  representative  of  the  Women's  Liberal  Leagues,  not  only  for  her 
own  great  county  of  York,  but  for  Darlington  in  the  county  of  Durham,  Southport 
in  Lancashire,  and  Crewe  in  Cheshire.  She  also  represents  the  women  in  her  native 
town  of  Leeds  on  the  great  and  burning  question  of  social  purity.  There  is  no  ques- 
tion from  the  lowest  condition  to  which  woman  can  fall  to  the  highest  to  which  she 
can  aspire  educationally  which  has  not  had  the  benefit  of  her  earnest  voice  and  the 
assistance  of  her  wonderful  power  for  practical  work. 

Mrs.  Stewart,  full  of  years  and  noble  work  in  the  great  moral  question  of  this  age, 
of  which  Mrs.  Josephine  Butler  is  the  leading  spirit,  is  sent  by  the  Bristol  committee 
of  the  Ladies'  National  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice, 
thus  manifesting  her  earnestness  in  the  cause  to  which  she  has  devoted  the  best 
years  of  her  life.  Mrs.  Stewart  crosses  the  ocean  when  she  might  well  have  claimed 
the  rest  which  her  age  demands.* 

And  now  I  come  to  Mrs.  Ormiston  Chant.  We  in  Scotland  have  not  inaugu- 
rated Women's  Liberal  Leagues  as  they  have  done  in  England  ;  one  reason  being 
that  there  is  less  need  for  them,  as  the  Conservatives  do  not  possess  much  political 
strength  in  Scotland.  Mrs.  Chant,  therefore,  represents  our  Edinburgh  and  Glas- 
gow National  Women's  Suffrage  Society  pure  and  simple,  which  is  a  strong  and 
united  body.  She  is  also  sent  as  the  representative  of  the  Social  Purity,  Peace  and 
Vigilance  Associations  here,  and  also  of  the  British  Women's  Temperance  Associa- 
tions botb  in  Scotland  and  England. 

I  believe  in  inspirations.  The  other  day  I  was  led  to  look  into  a  little  volume  of 
poetry  called  "  Verona  and  Other  Poems,"  written  by  this  gifted  lady,  to  find  four 
lines  which  had  much  impressed  me  a  year  ago,  when  her  book  was  first  published. 
I  had  quite  forgotten  what  the  verse  was,  but  was  sure  I  should  recognize  it  when  I 
came  upon  it.  I  was  not  a  little  struck  to  find  it  was  a  part  of  a  poem  entitled, 
"  England  to  America."  It  seemed  to  me  as  though  the  little  poem  had  been  writ- 
ten almost  prophetically  when  regarded  in  connection  with  our  having  appointed  the 
author  as  our  delegate  to  your  Congress.  I  got  it  printed  in  the  form  in  which  I 
send  it  to  you,  with  the  dove  bearing  the  olive  branch,  which  comes  as  the  emblem 
of  our  feeling  toward  you.  I  thought  it  might  serve  as  a  little  souvenir  of  your 
great  Congress,  and  Mrs.  Chant  will  be  the  bearer  of  her  own  beautiful  message 
to  you. 

Before  closing  let  me  tell  you  another  little  story  of  love  and  good-will.  Mrs. 
Marie  Muller,  the  mother  of  Henrietta  Muller  and  of  Eva  McLaren,  and  of  two 
other  daughters  devoted  to  good  work,  in  proof  of  her  full  appreciation  of  the  far- 
reaching  meaning  of  your  Convention,  sent  me  £30  in  aid  of  it,  with  these  eloquent 
words,  "  For  God  and  my  Country."  And  it  is  in  the  full  meaning  of  these  words 
and  with  this  great  sentiment  in  our  hearts  that  we  send  forth  our  representatives  to 
your  Congress.     When  I  think  of  all  the  questions  and  all  the  hopes  and  aspirations 

*  Mrs.  Stewart  failed  to  attend  the  Council. 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  41 

which  they  go  to  represent,  I  feel  that  I  may  quote  with  a  slight  alteration  the  words 

of  one  of  our  poets,  and  say  : 

They  bear  a  freight, 

It  prayerful  thought  and  mind  were  weight, 

For  Him  who  bore  the  world." 

That  they  may  contribute  something  of  good  from  us  to  you  and  bring  back 
much  from  you  to  us,  is  the  blessing  which  I  hope  an  approving  God  will  give  to 
their  mission. 

I  am,  dear  Miss  Anthony,  apologizing  for  my  long  letter,  your  loving  friend, 

Priscilla  Bright  McLaren. 


Miss  Anthony.  I  hold  in  my  hand  letters  from  Elizabeth  Pease  Nichol, 
Eliza  Wigham,  Edinburgh ;  Mrs.  Jacob  Bright,  Alderly  Edge ;  Catharine 
Lucas  Thomasson,  Bolton  ;  Margaret  E.  Parker,  Penketh  ;  Margaret  Bright 
Lucas,  Caroline  A.  Biggs,  Frances  Lord,  F.  Henrietta  Miiller,  London; 
Isabella  M.  Tod,  Belfast ;  Caroline  de  Barrau,  Theodore  Stanton,  Charlotte 
B.  Wilbour,  Paris;  Eugenie  Potonie  Pierre,  Vincennes,  France.  Mile. 
Hubertine  Auclert,  editor  of  La  Citoyenne,  Paris,  in  a  letter  outlining  her 
idea  of  establishing  parliaments  of  women,  writes  ; 

When  one  wishes  to  assert  one's* claim,  one  must,  after  all,  have  the  courage  to 
proclaim  it.  *  *  *  To  gain  our  rights  we  do  no  violence  to  the  body  ;  but 
we  do  violence  to  the  minds  in  which  bitter  prejudice  is  anchored.  *  *  *  "When 
we  shall  have  under  our  eyes  assemblies  of  women  discussing  wisely,  working  a 
great  deal  and  well,  we  shall  no  longer  be  prevented  from  sending  women  into  the 
parliaments  of  men.  *  *  *  The  Congress  at  Washington,  in  which  so  much 
intelligence  and  nobility  will  be  united,  will  complete,  perfect  and  launch  this  idea 
of  which  I  have  given  but  an  outline.  *  *  *  The  United  States  of  America  will 
establish  the  united  rights  of  the  human  race  by  causing  to  triumph,  for  the*  two 
sexes,  equality  before  the  law. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  would  mention  a  few  of  the  women  whose  names  are 
appended  to  this  greeting  from  Bristol,  England.  There  are  three  sisters-in- 
law  of  John  and  Jacob  Bright,  Anna  Priestman,  Mary  Priestman,  and  Mar- 
garet A.  Tanner,  as  noble  women  as  the  earth  ever  saw.  There  is  Helen 
Bright  Clark,  the  daughter  of  John  Bright.  As  some  of  you  may  know,  Mr. 
Bright,  in  his  later  years,  has  declared  himself  not  in  favor  of  the  enfran- 
chisement of  women,  and  four  years  ago,  when  I  was  in  England,  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  attending  a  Liberal  Conference,  at  Leeds,  in  which  he  made  a 
great  speech.  In  the  business  session  of  this  conference  this  brave  daughter 
of  John  Bright,  having  been  appointed  by  some  of  the  Liberal  Leagues  of  the 
kingdom  a  delegate  to  that  body,  rose  to  her  feet  and  seconded  a  motion 
that  the  Liberal  Party  of  England  should  put  in  its  platform  a  woman -suffrage 
plank,  knowing  well  that  it  was  in  direct  opposition  to  her  father.  That  is 
why  I  call  her  brave.  As  much  as  the  woman  loved  her  father,  she  loved 
truth  and  her  own  convictions  more.  The  Bright  family  I  delighted  to  call 
Americans  when  over  in  England,  because  they  so  thoroughly  understood  the 
4 


42  International  Council  of  Women. 

principles  of  freedom  and  equality  that  underlie   our  Government.     The 
Women's  Liberal  Association,  of  Bristol,  sends  us  the  following  greeting: 

Bkistol,  England,  March  1,  1888. 
To  the  International  Council  of  Women  assembled  by  the  National  Woman  Suffrage 

Association  of  the  United  States  at  Washington,  from  the  Committee  of  the  Bristol 

Women's  Liberal  Association. 

Dear  Sisters:  We  have  heard  of  your  intended  gathering  with  deep  interest. 

We  are  not  able  to  send  one  of  our  number  to  represent  us,  but  we  write  to  tell 
you  that  your  zealous  labors  in  America  strengthen  and  encourage  our  work  here, 
to  bid  you  God-speed,  and  to  assure  you  that  we  are  one  with  you  in  the  conviction 
that  women  must  stand  by  women,  the  most  educated  by  the  most  ignorant,  the  most 
sheltered  by  the  most  unprotected,  until  every  barrier  raised  by  law  and  custom  in 
ithe  way  of  woman's  full  development  and  freedom  shall  be  broken  down. 

(Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Association.) 
Anna  M.  Priestman,  Helena  Born, 

President.  Rosalie  Bruce, 

Helen  P.  Bright  Clark,  Maria  Colby, 

Margaret  A.  Tanner,  Mary  A.  Estlin, 

Emma  Venaing,  Louisa  Perry, 

Sarah  Mary  Jewett,  Rebecca  Newell  Price, 

Annie  Thomas,  •  Mary  Ralph, 

Vice-Presidents.  Catherine  Stone, 

Mary  Priestman,  Emily  Sturge, 

Treasurer.  Helen  M.  Sturge, 

Alice  Grenfell,  Louise  Bjn-arm, 

Sarah  Jane  Tanner,  Executive  Committee. 

Honorable  Secretaries. 

Miss  Anthony.     And  here  is  a  greeting  from  Ireland  with  most  honored 
names  of  the  city  of  Dublin  : 
To  the  International  Council  of  Women  to  be  held  in   Washington,  March,  1888. 

We,  who  subscribe  our  names,  on  behalf  of  very  many  friends  in  Ireland,  desire 
to  express  our  deep  regret  that  we  shall  not  be  able  to  assist  in  your  eventful  anni- 
versary celebration.  We  shall,  however,  be  with  you  earnestly  in  spirit.  In  com- 
mon with  yourselves,  Irishwomen  still  suffer  grievously  from  numerous  political 
and  other  disabilities,  but  we  are  thankful  to  report  that  we  have  made  several 
most  important  advances,  chiefly  in  the  direction  of  educational  justice,  during  the 
last  decade;  and  we  have  good  reason  to  expect  that  many  other  reforms  of  a  like 
substantial  character  will  be  effected  during  the  next  few  years.  That  your  delib- 
erations may  be  blessed  in  the  rapid  hastening  of  those  further  measures  of  justice 
for  which  women  everywhere  are  longing,  is  the  earnest  prayer  of  our  hearts. 
Anna  Maria  Haslam,  Hon.  Sec.  Women's  Suffrage  Association.] 
Mary  Edmundson,  Hon.  Sec.  Dublin  Prison- Gate  Mission. 

Hannah  Maria  Wigham,  Pres.  Women's  Temperance  Association,  Dublin,  and  Mem- 
ber of  Peace  Committee. 
Wilhelmina  Webb,  Member  of  Ladies'  Sanitary  Committee,  Women's  Suffrage,  etc. 
Rose  McDowell,  Hon.  Secretary  Women's  Suffrage  Committee. 
Isabella  Mulvany,  Head  Mistress  Alexandra  School,  Dublin. 
Harriet  W.  Russell,  Member  of  Women's  Temperance  Association. 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  43 

Deborah  Webb,  Late  Hon.  Sec.  Ladies'  Dublin  C.  D.  A.  Repeal  Association. 
Ellen  Allen,  Member  of  Women's  Temperance  and  Peace  Associations. 
Lucy  Smithson,  Member  of  the  Sanitary  Committee  and  Women's  Suffrage  Associa- 
tion. 
Emily  Webb,  Member  of  Women's  Suffrage  Association. 
Agnes  Mason,  Medical  Student  and  Member  of  the  Women's  Suffrage  Committee. 

Miss  Anthony.     And  now  comes  Norway's  greeting  : 

The  Women's  Suffrage  Association  of  Norway  to  the  International  Council  of  Women 
at  Washington. 

The  members  of  our  Association  express  their  deepest  gratitude  to  the  women  of 
America  who  forty  years  ago  took  the  lead  in  the  woman  suffrage  movement.  We 
feel  the  greatest  admiration  for  the  noble  work  you  have  done  and  are  doing  in  our 
common  cause,  and  we  join  in  your  hope  for  the  future. 

On  behalf  of  the  Women's  Suffrage  Association  of  Norway. 

Gina  Krog,  President. 

Anna  Bogstad,  Vice-President. 

Miss  Anthony.  And  re-enforcing  this  hearty  good  speed,  there  comes 
this  morning  a  cable  message  saying,  "  Success  to  your  work,"  dated  Chris- 
tiana, March  25,  1888,  and  signed  Norwegian  Women's  Suffrage  Associa- 
tion. And  here  is  a  cablegram  from  the  youngest  daughter  of  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  who,  to  my  chagrin,  married  an  Englishman  and  expatriated 
herself — Harriot  Stanton  Blatch,  Basingstoke,  who  sends  greetings  and  good 
wishes  to  the  Council,  and  who  expected  to  be  here  until  the  last  moment. 
This  telegram  is  from  California,  and  says  : 

We,  the  undersigned,  physicians  of  San  Francisco,  send  greetings  and  best  wishes 
for  a  successful  Council. 

Charlotte  B.  Brown,  M.  D.  Agnes  Lowry,  M.  D. 

Ltjcy  M.  F.  Wanzer,  M.  D.  Emma  S.  Merritt,  M.  D. 

Edna  II.  Field,  M.  D.  Elizabeth  Yates,  M.  D. 

Isabella  Lowry,  M.  D.  Elizabeth  Gallimore,  M.  D. 

Elizabeth  C.  Sargent,  M.  D. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  must  tell  you  that  Elizabeth  Sargent  is  the  daughter  of 
the  late  Senator  Sargent,  Minister  to  Germany,  who  perfected  her  med- 
ical studies  in  the  Old  World,  is  now  practicing  in  San  Francisco,  and  has 
founded  a  hospital  there  for  women. 

This  is  a  telegram  from  the  editor  and  founder  of  the  New  York  Press, 
Robert  P.  Porter : 

Mrs.  Porter  and  myself  send  greetings.  Hope  your  Convention  will  be  a  success. 
The  Press  will  publish  a  good  report  of  your  proceedings. 

Miss  Anthony.  Very  good.  We  are  glad  that  newspaper  editors  are 
vieing  with  each  other  as  to  which  shall  publish  the  best  report  of  our 
Council.  It  used  to  be  otherwise,  when  they  vied  with  each  other  to  see 
which  could  say  the  least  of  fact  and  the  most  of  caricature  and  ridicule. 
Thank  Heaven,  those  days  have  passed. 


44  International  Council  of  Women. 

Miss  Anthony  then  presented  the  foreign  delegates. 

Alexandra  Gripenberg.  I  have  the  honor  and  the  pleasure  to  represent 
my  poor  little  nation  that  lives  in  the  hard  climate  which  we  have  in  Fin- 
land, and  I  bring  you  a  greeting  from  our  pleasant  blue  lakes  and  our  mid- 
night sun,  and  from  our  women  who  have  sent  me  here  to  the  land  of  the 
noble  and  eminent  women  of  America. 

Isabelle  Bogelot  (speaking  in  her  native  tongue).  I  am  here  in  the 
name  of  my  compatriots  of  France  to  bear  to  you  the  message  of  her  greet- 
ing and  her  thanks. 

Miss  Anthony  then  presented  the  delegate  from  Norway, 
Sophia  Magelsson  Groth. 

Pundita  Ramabai  Sarasvati.  I  am  very  glad,  good  friends,  to  meet  you 
here,  and  I  am  sure  if  India  knew  what  these  wonderful  women  were  doing 
she  would  be  very  glad  to  send  her  greeting;  and  as  she  has  not  sent  her 
official  delegates,  I  will  try  to  represent  her  myself,  especially  as  her  women 
are  not  able  to  talk  in  your  language.  I  am  very  glad  to  meet  you,  and  wish 
you  all  success. 

Margaret  Moore.  When  at  the  reception  the  other  evening  some 
friendly  woman  said  to  me:  "I  hope  you  will  feel  at  home  in  this  country," 
I  said:  "Yes,  every  Irish  woman  who  comes  to  America  comes  home." 
And  so  far  do  I  feel  that,  that  although  to-day  I  stand  here  as  a  representa- 
tive of  Irish  women,  as  you  have  been  told,  having  received  the  highest 
honor  in  the  power  of  the  English  government  to  bestow  upon  an  Irish 
woman,  that  of  imprisonment  for  the  love  of  her  country,  I  have  declared 
my  intention  of  becoming  an  American  citizen  and  bringing  up  my  children 
here  in  the  land  of  liberty.  We  Irish  women  have  already  taken  our  place 
in  the  political  van.  When  our  brothers  were  imprisoned  we  stepped  for- 
ward and  carried  on  the  work.  Even  in  the  ages  long  ago  there  was  an 
Irish  queen  who  died  fighting  at  the  head  of  her  army,  which  proves  that  in 
those  days  there  was  perfect  equality  and  that  women  were  able  to  do  their 
share  of  fighting  then,  as  well  as  of  talking.  I  am  proud  to  be  here  with 
this  assemblage  of  the  daughters  of  various  parts  of  the  earth,  all  strangers, 
perhaps,  in  blood,  but  all  the  children  of  one  common  Father,  and  all 
striving  how  best  they  can  do  that  Father's  will. 

In  presenting  the  English  delegates,  Miss  Anthony  said: 

Mrs.  McLaren  in  her  letter  of  greeting  to  this  Council  introduces  and,  as 
I  might  say,  lays  her  sacred  hand  upon  the  heads  of  the  delegates  who  have 
been  appointed  from  Edinburgh.  They  are  Mrs.  Ormiston  Chant  and  Mrs. 
Scatcherd.  Then,  besides  these  two  delegates,  we  have  Mrs.  Margaret  Dilke — 
I  have  taught  her  better  since  she  has  come  to  this  country  than  to  be  Mrs. 
James  or  John — Mrs.  Margaret  Dilke  is  our  other  delegate  from  England, 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  45 

appointed  by  the  Liberal  league  of  Newcastle.  I  will  introduce  to  you  first 
Mrs.  Alice  Scatcherd,  who  was  a  member  of  that  liberal  Conference  at 
Leeds,  of  which  I  have  already  spoken. 

Mrs.  Scatcherd.  I  can  not  express  to  you  how  deeply  touched  I 
have  been  by  the  cordiality  of  the  welcome  with  which  the  same  of  my 
country  and  its  delegates  have  been  received  by  you.  I  regard  the  invitation 
to  be  present  at  this  International  Council  as  the  greatest  honor  ever 
accorded  to  me.  Indeed,  it  is  the  greatest  honor  which  America  could, 
in  my  opinion,  render  to  an  English  woman.  I  am  proud  indeed  to  think 
that  I  was  present  at  that  reception  in  Liverpool,  to  which  Mrs.  Stanton 
referred,  when  the  question  of  this  great  Council  was  first  mentioned. 

We  have  come,  hoping  to  learn  much  from  the  ladies  of  this  country.  I 
have  long  been  convinced  that  whatever  step  American  women  take  in 
advance  brings  the  women  of  England  a  step  farther.  Some  people  pretend 
to  be  afraid  of  what  American  women  will  do;  I  can  only  say  :  "  Go  on, 
ladies,"  because  when  you  go  far  in  advance  we  shortly  follow.  We  have 
come  to  learn.  We  have  also  come  to  impart  our  views  to  you.  I  feel  very 
sure  that  one  permanent  result  of  this  great  Council  will  be  to  draw  the 
hearts  of  all  women  more  closely  together. 

I  can  only  thank  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  for  the  kind  things  you 
have  said  of  my  country  and  of  me,  and  if  I  might  mention  one  person  it 
would  be  Mrs.  Priscilla  Bright  McLaren,  to  whom  Miss  Anthony  has  referred. 
The  women  of  Great  Britain  owe  as  much  to  the  women  of  the  Bright  family 
as  the  men  of  Great  Britain  owe  to  the  men  of  the  Bright  family.  And  the 
women  owe  a  noble  debt  of  gratitude  to  Jacob  Bright,  who  for  so  many  years 
has  been  the  champion  of  woman's  enfranchisement  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Mrs.  McLaren  is  with  us  this  very  moment  in  spirit.  She  sits  at 
home  with  her  gray  hair  and  her  widowed  head  bowed  down,  but  she  is 
with  us  this  whole  week  in  spirit.  When  I  go  back  to  the  hotel  I  shall  send 
her  a  cable  to  tell  her  of  the  magnificent  meeting  of  yesterday,  and  of  the 
hearty  reception  accorded  her  name  and  ours  to-day. 

Mrs.  Chant.  It  is  indeed  a  day  to  be  remembered,  a  day  that  gives  one 
such  glad  hope  for  all  that  is  coming  in  the  future.  Though  we  have  heard 
some  things  that  remind  us  that  the  fetters  are  still  around  some  of  us,  I  think 
those  who  say  it  have  climbed  the  mountain  of  hope.  We  will  not  waste 
time  in  looking  at  the  past.  We  see  the  mountain  yonder,  and  those  who 
have  climbed  have  promised  us  that  we  shall  climb  too.  It  is  a  high  honor 
to  me  to  stand  before  you  to  represent  the  old  country,  for,  though  our 
mother  is  old  and  in  some  things  very  feeble,  she  has  had  a  brave  heart 
through  the  centuries,  and  we  think  if  she  can  produce  so  splendid  a  child 
she  must  be  worthy. 

Mrs.  Dilke.  I  also  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  the  splendid  reception  and 
all  the  kind  things  that  have  been  said  about  us  in  this  country  from  the  very 


46  International  Council  of  Women. 

mo:iient  we  set  foot  here.  I,  who  am  a  member  of  the  Women's  Suffrage  So- 
ciety in  London,  and  represent  more  especially  the  Women's  Liberal  Associa- 
tions of  England,  and  in  particular  of  my  native  town  of  Newcastle,  am  ex- 
tremely glad  to  have  had  the  opportunity  of  joining  hands  with  you  on  this 
great  occasion.  I  got  my  first  inspiration  on  woman  suffrage  from  my  friend, 
Mrs.  Fawcett,  and  for  years  now  I  have  done  my  utmost  not  only  for  women, 
but  to  join  the  hands  of  the  great  democracies,  whom  I  believe  will  do  the 
utmost  for  women  as  well  as  men.  And  it  is  the  sympathy  of  the  democracy 
of  England  that  I  wish  more  especially  to  bring  to  this  great  country  of 
America. 

Mrs.  Gustafson.  I  had  prepared  in  my  mind  very  much  such  a 
speech  as  the  opening  of  Mrs.  Dilke's,  and  as  I  do  not  exactly  want  to 
repeat  it,  perhaps  you  will  permit  me  somewhat  facetiously  to  contradict  it 
and  say :  When  we  first  set  foot  on  this  shore  not  a  living  being  whom  any 
of  us  had  ever  seen  was  there  to  greet  us,  owing  to  your  blizzard.  On  account 
of  that,  no  one  knew  our  steamer  had  come  in.  I  am  very  proud  and  grate- 
ful to  bring  greeting  to  this  country  from  the  National  Prohibition  Society 
of  Great  Britain,  which  strives  first  and  foremost  for  woman  suffrage  as  its 
sole  hope  of  success  in  that  or  any  other  social  reform  whatever.  I  wish  to 
express  also  my  gratitude  for  the  cordial  hospitality  extended  to  us  every  step 
from  our  first  unrecognized  landing  until  this  very  moment. 

Miss  Anthony.  We  are  just  in  receipt  of  a  greeting  from  the  Fatherland, 
from  Germany.  It  is  sent  through  Dr.  Zakrzewska,  of  Boston  ;  it  is  from 
Johanna  Frederica  Wecker,  of  Frankfort.  We  are  just  as  glad  for  this  greet- 
ing from  Germany  as  we  are  for  all  the  others.  Now  we  will  take  a  little 
part  of  England,  and  of  America,  and  call  on  Canada.  Let  me  introduce 
to  you  Mrs.  Bessie  Starr  Keefer,  the  first  woman  who  ever  took  the  degree  of 
B.  A.  in  that  country. 

Mrs.  Keefer.  I  do  not  know  exactly  what  I  represent  this  morning.  I 
am  not  supposed  to  represent  the  Province  or  the  Dominion,  but  from  Mrs. 
Stanton's  speech  I  presume  I  represent  the  codfish,  and  I  want  to  say  that 
the  codfish  of  Canada  wishes  me  to  inform  the  American  nation  that  it  would 
just  as  soon  be  eaten  this  side  the  line  as  the  other  ;  it  does  not  make  a  bit  of 
difference.  I  bring  to  you  the  warm  greetings  of  the  Women's  Christian 
Temperance  Unions  of  Toronto,  eleven  in  number.  Opposite  me  here  stands 
Mrs.  Mary  McDonnell,  the  President  of  our  Union  of  Toronto,  to  whom 
we  Canadian  women  largely  owe  the  fact  that  our  spinsters  and  widows 
have  a  vote  in  municipal  affairs. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  believe  we  have  heard  from  the  delegates  and  repre- 
sentatives from  the  different  countries,  and  now  I  want  to  give  you  a  little 
specimen  of  Yankeeism.  I  am  proud  to  present  to  you  Lucy  Stone,  and  I 
am  glad  you  give  her  a  right  royal  reception.  [Great  applause  and  waving 
of  handkerchiefs.] 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  47 

Mrs.  Stone.  This  call  to  present  myself  is  entirely  unexpected.  My  place 
on  the  programme  is  among  the  pioneers.  This  greeting  you  give  me  is 
cordial  and  touches  me  very  much.  I  only  hope  that  when  the  Pioneers' 
Day  comes  I  shall  be  ready  to  say  what  you  may  be  pleased  to  hear.  I  am 
glad  to  be  here  and  that  you  are  all  here,  and  that  both  sides  of  the  ocean 
are  agreed  in  one  thing — in  the  demand  for  equal  human  rights. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  wanted  to  tell  you  when  I  introduced  Mrs.  Stone  how 
I  became  converted  to  woman  suffrage.  In  those  good  old  days  when 
pioneers  lived  I  took  the  New  York  Weekly  Tribune.  I  did  not  go  to  that 
first  Worcester  convention  and  I  was  not  at  that  first  convention  at  Seneca 
Falls.  Do  not  make  any  mistakes  about  my  being  a  pioneer.  I  am 
quite  a  young  person.  But  I  did  read  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  I  was 
converted  by  the  report  of  the  very  first  of  those  meetings.  Among  the 
speeches  was  one  by  Lucy  Stone,  whom  I  then  had  never  seen,  in  which  she 
said  the  married  woman's  epitaph  was  the  "relict  "  of  John  Smith,  or  some 
other  man,  who  had  owned  her.  I  then  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  be 
the  relict  of  no  man. 

I  will  call  now  on  one  of  our  young  soldiers — we  can  not  all  of  us  be  old. 
I  want  to  bring  before  you  a  woman  who  has  an  army  of  a  million  .at  her  back, 
Miss  Frances  E.  Willard,  a  modest  woman,  who  can  talk  very  little,  so  I 
hope  you  will  make  great  allowance  for  her. 

Miss  Willard.  I  think  Susan  brought  me  out  to  make  me  own  up  that 
I  got  very  much  the  same  sort  of  training  from  Lucy  Stone  that  she  did  ; 
but,  like  Susan.  I  am  very  juvenile;  I  am  not  a  pioneer;  I  am  just  one  of 
the  new-comers  that  are  learning  from  these  older  heads  how  to  behave,  and 
I  remember  when  I  was  dreadfully  afraid  of  Susan  and  of  Lucy,  too  But 
now  I  love  and  honor  these  women,  and  I  can  not  put  into  words  my 
sense  of  what  it  means  to  me  to  have  the  blessings  of  these  women  who  have 
made  it  possible  for  more  timid  ones  like  myself  to  come  along  and  take  our 
places  in  the  world's  work.  If  they  had  not  blazed  the  trees  and  pioneered 
the  way  we  should  not  have  dared  to  come.  If  there  is  one  single  drop  of 
chivalric  blood  in  woman's  veins  it  ought  to  bring  a  tinge  of  pride  to  the  face 
when  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Lucy  Stone,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  and  Julia 
Ward  Howe,  and  these  grand  women,  our  leaders  and  our  foremothers,  are 
here  for  us  to  greet ;  that  they,  who  heard  so  much  that  was  not  pleasant, 
may  hear  an  occasional  pleasant  word  while  they  are  alive. 

Miss  Anthony.     Will  Mr.  Douglass  say  a  word  or  two  ? 

Frederick  Douglass.  I  had  no  expectation  of  being  called  upon  at  this 
hour  to  utter  one  word,  and  hence  I  am  in  the  condition  of  the  excellent  lady 
who  addressed  you  a  moment  ago,  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone.  I  am  looking  forward  to 
the  day  of  the  pioneers.  Having  had  the  pleasure  and  privilege  of  being  pres- 
ent on  that  memorable  occasion,  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  say  something  when 
the  time  arrives,  in  respect  to  it.     Now  I  can  only  say  that  I  rejoice  to  see 


48  International  Council  of  Women. 

this  day.  I  congratulate  myself  first  and  you  next,  and  this  audience  next, 
and  the  friends  of  this  movement,  and  I  rejoice  above  all  things  to  see  Mrs. 
Stanton  in  this  chair  to-day.  I  rejoice  and  give  her  joy  that  after  this  storm, 
this  tempestuous  forty  years  of  agitation,  she  lives  to  witness  the  spectacle 
that  she  sees  to-day. 

Miss  Anthony.     Let  me  present  to  you  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe. 

Mrs.  Howe.  I  must  say,  like  two  or  three  who  have  preceded  me,  that  I 
am  entirely  unprepared  to  open  my  lips  here  this  morning.  When  you  have 
derided  Miss  Anthony's  youth,  what  will  you  say  to  my  white  hair?  When 
you  have  approved  of  Miss  Anthony's  celibacy,  what  will  you  say  to  my  oppo- 
site record,  because  it  was  about  the  same  time  when  she  took  that  valorous 
determination  that  she  would  not  be  anybody's  relict  that  I  took  my  place 
by  the  side  of  a  hero  to  try  to  keep  pace  with  his  noble  walk.  I  have  another 
ditto  to  say — not  only  that  I  am  unprepared  to  speak,  but  that,  also,  like 
others  who  have  spoken,  I  am  the  convert  of  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone.  I  remember 
very  vividly  the  woman  suffrage  meeting  held  in  Boston,  and  to  which  I 
went  with  a  rebellious  heart.  I  came  out  very  docile,  indeed,  and  have  so 
continued  ever  since. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  introduce  to  you  a  lady  who  made  her  appear- 
ance at  a  Woman  Suffrage  Convention  the  same  time  I  did — Matilda  Joslyn 
Gage. 

Mrs.  Gage.  Although,  like  Miss  Anthony,  I  can  not  claim  to  be  a  pio- 
neer, not  having  been  in  attendance  at  that  first  convention  of  1848,  yet,  if 
having  a  rebellious  spirit  against  all  the  wrong  and  injustice  that  one  sees  is 
being  a  pioneer,  I  have  been  one  from  my  earliest  childhood. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  see  Miss  Clara  Barton  in  the  audience.  Will  she  not 
speak  a  word  to  us  ? 

Clara  Barton.  I  lack  words  to  express  my  thoughts.  My  heart  is  too  full. 
I  am  so  full  of  joy  at  this  scene  before  me  that  I  have  no  words  to  utter  it. 
It  is  a  tribute  to  these  noble  women  that  they  much  deserve.  I  fear  I  was 
not  a  pioneer;  but  my  heart  was  there  with  them.  I  am  glad  and  proud  to 
say  it.  I  have  followed  many  other  ways,  and  if  I  had  not  been  so  occu- 
pied I  should  have  done  more  with  them  ;  but  I  can  only  say,  God  bless 
them  this  day. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  see  Robert  Purvis  in  the  audience.  Let  us  hear  from  the 
one  man  who  was  willing  to  wait  without  a  vote  for  twenty  years,  if  need  be, 
that  his  wife  and  daughter  might  vote  with  him. 

Mr.  Purvis.  I  am  very  proud  of  the  distinction  of  being  here,  undeserved, 
I  think,  however,  in  view  of  the  very  small  claims  I  can  make  of  having 
contributed  to  the  popularity  which  this  cause  has  attained.  But  I  am  very 
proud  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  pioneers  in  this  great  and  glorious  move- 
ment. 


Formal  Opening  of  the  Council.  49 

Miss  Anthony.  Let  me  now  present  to  you  Mrs.  Caroline  E.  Merrick, 
of  New  Orleans,  who  is  unable  to  speak  on  account  of  her  voice,  she  having 
been  almost  commanded  not  to  leave  her  own  sunny  South,  at  this  time.  I 
hope  we  may  hear  from  her  later. 

The  Chairman  then  read  the  list  of  the  Associations  repre- 
sented in  the  Council. 

1.  National  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 

Frances  E.  Willard,  Clara  Cleghorne  Hoffman,  Susan  H.  Barney. 

2.  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 

Hannah  Whitall  Smith. 

3.  Toronto  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 

Mary  McDonell,  Bessie  Starr  Keefer. 

4.  Edinburgh  Temperance  Association, 

Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 

5.  British  Women's  Temperance  Association, 

Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 

6.  National  Temperance  Hospital  and  Medical  College  Association, 

Dr.  Mary  Weeks  Burnett. 

7.  Woman's  Auxiliary  Conference  of  the  Unitarian  Association, 

Isabel  C.  Barrows. 

8.  Western  Women's  Unitarian  Conference, 

Victoria  Richardson. 

9.  Women's  Ministerial  Conference, 

Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles. 

10.  Woman's  Free  Baptist  Association, 

Marilla  M.  Hills,  M.  M.  Brewster. 

11.  Christian  Women's  Board  of  Missions, 

Kate  B.  Moore,  Cordie  B.  Knowles.  * 

12.  Woman's  Centenary  Association  of  Universalist  Church, 

M.  M.  Dean,  Emily  L.  Sherwood. 

13.  Ladies  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 

Laura  McNeir. 

14.  Woman's  Relief  Corps  of  the  G.  A.  R., 

E.  Florence  Barker. 

15.  American  Red  Cross  Society, 

Clara  Barton. 

16.  French  Woman's  Union  for  the  Care  of  the  Wounded, 

Isabelle  Bogelot. 

17.  Work  of  the  Liberated  of  St   Lazare, 

Isabelle  Bogrelot. 

18.  Women's  Primary  Association  (Utah), 

Nettie  Y.  Snell. 

19.  Young  Ladies'  Mutual  Improvement  Association  (Utah), 

Luella  L.  Young. 

20.  Women's  Relief  Association  (Utah), 

Emily  S.  Richards. 

21.  Woman's  National  Indian  Association, 

Amelia  S.  Quinton. 

22.  American  Woman  Suffrage  Association, 

Lucy  Stone,  Mary  A.  Livermore,  Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell. 

23.  School  Suffrage  Association  (Massachusetts), 

Martha  A.  Everett. 

24.  Edinburgh  National  Society  for  Women's  Suffrage, 

Alice  Scatcherd,  Laura  Ormistcn  Chant. 

25.  Glasgow  Women's  Suffrage  Association, 

Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 

26.  Woman  Suffrage  Society  (France), 

Isabelle  Bogelot. 

27.  Norwegian  Women's  Suffrage  Society, 

Sophia  Magelsson  Groth. 

28.  Western  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnus, 

Louisa  Reed  Stowell. 

29.  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Women, 

Julia  Ward  Howe,  Mary  F.  Eastman. 

30.  Finnish  Women's  Union, 

Alexandra  Gripenberg. 


50  International  Council  of  Women. 

31.  Danish  Woman's  Association, 

Ada  M.  Frederiksen. 

32.  Women's  Educational,  and  Industrial  Union  (Boston), 

Abby  Morton  Diaz. 

33.  Knights  of  Labor, 

Leonora  M.  Barry. 

34.  The  Grange, 

Fraternal  Delegate:  Anna  M.  Worden. 

35.  36,  37.    Darlington,  Yorkshire,  and  Southport  Liberal  Women's  Associations 

(England),  Alice  Scatcbeid. 

38.  Newcastle  Women's  Liberal  Association  (England), 

Mrs.  Ashton  Dilke. 

39.  Moral  Education  Society  (Boston), 

Caroline  M.  S.  Frazar. 

40.  New  York  Committee  for  Prevention  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice, 

Anna  Kice  Powell. 

41.  Edinburgh  Branch  of  the  Federation  for  Repeal  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice» 

Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 

42.  National  Vigilance  Association  (England), 

Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 

43.  Edinburgh  Purity  and  Vigilance  Association, 

Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 

44.  Danish  Women's  Union  for  the  Protection  of  Young  Girls, 

Ada  M.  Frederiksen. 

45.  Sorosis, 

M.  Louise  Thomas,  Jeunie  C.  Croly. 

46.  Sociologic  Society  of  America, 

Lita  Barney  Sayles. 

47.  Universal  Peace  Union, 

Rev.  Amanda  Deyo. 

48.  Women's  Peace  and  International  Arbitration  Society  (England). 

Laura  Ormiston  Chant. 

49.  Prohibition  Movement  of  Great  Britain, 

Zadel  B.  Gustafson. 

50.  Woman's  National  Press  Association. 

Aurelia  Hadley  Mohl. 

51.  Woman's  International  Press  Association, 

Martha  R.  Field. 

Miss  Anthony.  One  of  the  great  purposes  of  calling  this  Council  has 
been  that  it  may  result  in  an  International  Association  that  shall  henceforth 
hold  itself  in  readiness  to  communicate  with  every  possible  organization  in 
every  possible  country  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  that  we  may  know  that  all 
women  who  are  struggling  for  freedom  are  shaking  hands  together  the  world 
over.  To  carry  out  this  idea  for  the  co-operation  of  the  women  of  all 
nationalities,  it  was  decided,  at  a  meeting  of  the  delegates  held  at  the  Riggs 
House,  Saturday  afternoon,  to  appoint  a  committee  of  fifteen,  to  take  into 
consideration  whether  it  was  advisable  to  form  a  National  and  International 
Council.  I  was  appointed  as  the  person  to  name  the  committee  to  attend 
to  that  matter.  I  have  done  it  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  It  is  hard  work  to 
select  fifteen  from  a  galaxy  of  fifty  splendid  women,  but  I  hope  you  will 
approve  my  choice.  They  are:  Frances  E.  Willard,  Victoria  M.  Richard- 
son, Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles,  M.  Louise  Thomas,  Clara  Barton,  Rachel  G. 
Foster,  Mary  F.  Eastman,  May  Wright  Sewall,  Martha  R.  Field,  Bessie 
Starr  Keefer,  Alice  Scatcherd,  Laura  Ormiston  Chant,  Isabella  Bogelot, 
Sophia  Magelsson  Groth,  Alexandra  Gripenberg. 

The  session  closed  with  the  singing  of  the  stirring  hymn, 
"God  Shall  Lead  Us  On." 


MONDAY,   MAECH  26,   1888. 


EVENING  SESSION. 


EDUCATION. 


After  music  by  the  orchestra,  the  Chairman  introduced  Rev. 
Annie  H.  Shaw,  who  opened  the  session  with  prayer.  The 
leading  paper  of  the  session  was  presented  by  May  Wright 
Sewall,  Principal  of  the  Girl's  Classical  School,  Indianapolis, 
Indiana. 

HIGHER    EDUCATION    FOR   WOMEN    IN   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

Mrs.  Sewall.  Mr.  Garfield  said  that  a  hollow  log  with  President  Hopkins, 
of  Williams  College,  sitting  on  one  end  of  it  and  himself  sitting  on  the  other, 
would  constitute  a  university.  The  truth  in  such  a  remark  is  easily  compre- 
hended by  women,  for  by  virtue  of  that  truth  many  a  woman  became  liberally 
educated  before  any  college  registered  women  among  its  matriculates.  Our 
subject,  however,  does  not  concern  itself  with  the  liberal  education  which  gifted 
girls  have  incidentally  received  through  close  companionship  with  learned, 
generous,  and  magnetic  minds,  or  have  surreptitiously  gathered  from  the 
cast-away  text-books  of  collegian  brothersand  the  libraries  of  scholarly  fathers. 
The  subject  restricts  us  to  a  consideration  of  the  higher  education,  received 
through  its  legitimate  avenues,  the  college  and  the  university.  Thus  lim- 
ited, the  theme  naturally  suggests  a  study  of  the  facilities  for  advanced  edu- 
cation offered  to  the  women  of  this  country  by  its  institutions.  It  is  no 
part  of  my  purpose  to  condense  into  this  half-hour  the  history  of  the  efforts 
made  by  the  women  of  the  United  States  to  obtain  these  facilities,  but 
to  recapitulate  the  gains  of  the  last  half-century;  to  ascertain  the  absolute 
and  the  relative  condition  of  education  among  us;  and  to  indicate  the  work 
which  must  be  done  before  we  can  regard  the  position  of  education  in  our 
country  with  complacency.  The  gains  can  be  measured  only  when  we 
know  what  opportunities  were  enjoyed  by  women  at  the  time  when  this  study 
properly  begins;  and  these  opportunities  may  be  inferred  from  the  demands 
made  by  the  advocates  of  education  at  that  time. 

The  first  public  expression  in  England  of  the  restiveness  felt  by  women 
under  the  existing  methods  of  education  was  made  by  Mary  Wollstonecraft 
in  1789.  In  1799  Hannah  More's  "Strictures  on  Female  Education" 
appeared;  this  was  followed  in  1809  by  a  stronger  discussion  of  the  same 
subject  under  a  weaker  title,  viz.,  "Ccelebs  in  Search  of  a  Wife,"  by  the  same 
author.  In  the  same  year  (180;)  Sydney  Smith  also  vindicated  the  claim 
of  women  to  a  more  extensive  education  than  that  in  vogue,  and  in  1819 
Emma  Willard  wrote  her  "Plan  of  Female  Education,"  embodied  it    in    a 


52  International  Council  of  Women. 

memorial  to  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  petitioned  that 
body  for  the  endowment  of  a  female  seminary,  thus  making  the  first  appeal 
on  record  in  this  country  for  State  aid  in  the  higher  education  of  women. 
Mary  Wollstonecraft  uncompromisingly  demanded  that  society  should 
provide  for  women  opportunities  for  the  highest  education,  but  the  tone 
of  all  other  early  advocates  of  this  cause  seems  to  the  ears  of  this  genera- 
tion moderate,  timid,  and  apologetic. 

For  example,  Mrs.  Willard  begs  the  members  of  the  New  York  legislature 
to  dismiss  from  their  minds  the  fear  that  she  wishes  them  to  take  measures 
for  the  production  of  "college-bred  females,"  and  she  implies  that  the 
vision  suggested  by  the  phrase  is  as  obnoxious  to  her  mind  as  it  possibly  can 
be  to  theirs.  Again,  in  speaking  of  the  honors  which  are  used  to  stimulate 
students  in  colleges,  she  expresses  the  opinion  that  the  diploma  which  each 
receives  at  the  end  of  the  course  is  "  admissible  in  a  female  seminary  ;  "  but 
that  the  appointments  to  perform  certain  parts  in  public  exhibitions  which 
are  given  in  college  by  the  faculty  as  rewards  for  superior  scholarship  can 
not  with  propriety  be  made  in  a  seminary,  since,  as  she  naively  adds,  "  public 
speaking  forms  no  part  of  female  education." 

Indeed  it  was  not  higher  education  in  its  present  sense  which  pioneers  in 
this  cause  advocated.  It  was  not  higher  education  at  all,  but  education  for 
which  they  pleaded,  as  was  their  need.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
college  had  been  equipped  for  young  men  before  the  school -house  was 
opened  to  their  sisters.  Harvard  College  was  founded  one  hundred  and 
fifty-three  years  before  the  slightest  provision  for  the  education  of  girls  was 
made  by  Massachusetts. 

The  Boston  public  schools,  founded  in  1644,  were  for  boys  only  until 
1789,  when  girls  were  admitted  to  the  "  reading  and  writing  schools  "  for 
a  part  of  the  year.  Primary  schools  for  both  sexes  were  opened  in  181 8. 
In  1828  girls  were  admitted  to  all  grades  below  the  High  School.  The  Girls' 
City  Normal  School  was  established  in  1852.  In  1855  this  institution  was 
changed  to  the  Girls'  High  and  Normal  School.  In  1872  it  was  divided 
into  a  Normal  and  a  High  School  ;  only  ten  years  ago,  in  1878,  the  Girls' 
Latin  High  School  was  opened.  I  have  indicated  the  growth  of 
public-school  opportunities  for  girls  in  Boston,  because  that  is  the 
oldest  most  cultivated  city  of  an  old  State  which  has  always  stood  pre- 
eminent for  liberal-mindedness.  Turning  from  public  to  private  effort,  we 
find  that  the  seminary  at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  opened  as  a  day  school  in  1749, 
and  as  a  boarding  school  in  1785,  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the  earliest  of 
its  kind  in  the  United  States,  as  it  was  for  many  years  the  best.  The 
Friends'  school  at  Wilmington,  Del.,  still  in  operation,  was  opened  in  1748, 
one  year  prior  to  the  Bethlehem  school.  It  is  not  known  that  girls  were 
admitted  at  its  opening,  but  the  Quaker  theory  of  the  equality  of  the  sexes, 
the  present  practice  of  the  school,  and  the  fact  that  its  history  mentions  no 


i>    J>      <fi    If 

Education.  53 

change  of  policy  in  this  respect  perhaps  justify  the  conjecture  that  the  school 
was  co-educational  in  the  beginning. 

The  oldest  institutions  authorized  to  confer  degrees  upon  women  are 
Bradford  Academy,  Massachusetts,  chartered  in  1804,  Maine  Wesieyan  Sem- 
inary and  Female  College,  and  Troy  Female  Seminary,  chartered  in  1821, 
and  the  Granville  Female  College,  Ohio,  in  1834. 

Such  are  the  feeble  beginnings  of  what  may  be  called  the  higher  educa- 
tion movement.  Its  genesis  and  growth  may  be  thus  indicated :  the 
Boarding  School,  the  Female  Seminary,  the  co-educational  Academy,  and 
the  Female  College.  The  higher  education  of  present  generations  is  being 
carried  forward  regularly  through  (1)  Women's  Colleges,  (2)  Co-educational 
Colleges  and  Universities,  and  irregularly  through  (1)  Clubs,  (2)  Lectures, 
(3)  Correspondence  Societies,  (4)  University  Examinations. 

The  Female  Seminary  at  its  best,  as  at  Troy,  N.  Y.,  was  a  noble  institu- 
tion ;  but  there  was  hardly  more  difference  between  the  Female  Seminary  and 
the  barrenness  which  preceded  it  than  between  the  Woman's  College  and  the 
Seminary.  The  transition  from  the  Seminary  to  the  veritable  College  was  not 
easy.  A  student  of  the  higher  education  of  women  in  this  country  can 
draw  upon  ample  sources  of  information.  No  subject  in  the  last  fifty  years 
has  been  discussed  with  greater  fullness.  In  its  consideration  of  the  claims 
made  by  advanced  women  the  public  has  exhibited  no  credulity.  Every 
step  has  been  challenged.  The  literature  of  this  subject  is  vast,  including 
biographies  of  individuals,  histories  of  institutions,  reports  of  formal  inves- 
tigating committees,  and  the  voluntary  testimony  of  pulpit,  lecture-room, 
and  press.  Clergymen  of  all  grades,  from  curates  and  itinerant  exhorters 
to  Bishops  and  Moderators  of  the  General  Assembly,  physicians  of  all  schools, 
country  schoolmasters  and  college  presidents,  journalists,  scientists,  and 
moralists  have  discussed  the  religious,  physiological,  social,  moral,  and 
domestic  aspects  of  this  problem,  while  statisticians,  with  growing  diligence 
and  accuracy,  have  collected  the  facts. 

The  objections  against  the  claims  of  the  higher  education  are  all 
a  priori,  and  fall  naturally  under  three  heads : 

(a.)  Those  that  arise  from  the  limitations  of  woman's  (supposed)  nature. 

(<£.)  Those  that  proceed  from  the  (supposed)  direct  effects  upon  men  of 
such  education  of  women. 

(c.)  Those  that  arise  from  a  consideration  of  the  consequences  to  society 
which  would  flow  from  the  higher  education  of  women. 

Though  supporters  of  all  of  the  above  objections  still  survive,  they  have 
been  slain  so  frequently  with  logic,  and  have  been  buried  so  deeply  under 
arguments  and  facts,  that  one  may  justly  refer  to  them  in  the  past  tense. 

(a.)  Objectors  of  the  first  class  whose  first  interest,  it  must  be  admitted, 
seems  to  have  been  the  happiness  of  women  themselves,  assumed  the  mental 
incapacity  and   the  physical  fragility  of  women.     They  urged  that  it  was 


54  International  Council  of  Women. 

fruitless  cruelty  to  encourage  women  to  undertake  an  education  which  they 
could  not  achieve,  inasmuch  as  their  failure  would  make  their  mental  limi- 
tations conspicuous,  and  thus  add  to  their  disappointment  bitter  mortifica- 
tion. These  opponents  added  that  should  exceptional  women  demonstrate 
their  possession  of  the  mental  scope  and  force  required  to  do  good  college 
work,  their  feeble  bodies  would  sink  under  severe  application  to  abstruse 
subjects,  and  the  result  of  such  efforts  would  be  (to  quote  the  awful  phrase 
of  one  who  signed  himself  "A  Worshiper  of  Womanhood)  "  hospitals  and 
asylums  filled  with  highly  educate%d  female  wrecks."  Going  further,  these 
defenders  of  what  was  currently  called  "  natural  womanhood  "  asserted  that 
even  should  what  they  believed  to  be  the  exceptional  prove  to  be  the  usual, 
and  should  it  be  demonstrated  that  women  had  capacity  to  acquire  and 
strength  to  sustain  the  higher  education,  yet  such  acquirements  would  impair 
feminine  grace,  dull  feminine  sensibilities  and  destroy  domestic  tastes,  thereby 
unfitting  women  for  the  conjugal  and  maternal  relations  in  which  Heaven  had 
appointed  that  they  should  find  their  chief  happiness. 

(<£.)  The  second  class  of  objectors  declared,  or  implied  with  little  attempt 
at  disguise,  that  as  woman  was  created  for  man,  her  education  must  be  reg- 
ulated with  reference  to  its  effect  upon  him.  These,  accepting  all  the  fine 
views  of  woman's  nature  entertained  by  the  first  class  of  objectors,  argued 
that  the  tenderness,  affection,  and  chivalrous  regard  with  which  women  had 
inspired  men  had  been  the  chief  agencies  in  softening  man's  rough  nature  ; 
that  educated  women  would  fail  to  inspire  men  with  these  sentiments ;  that 
the  absence  of  such  sentiments  would  seriously  impair  masculine  character. 
They  urged  that  woman's  dependence  upon  man  had  hitherto  been  one  of 
his  chief  incentives  to  activity  ;  that  the  educated  woman  would  be  a  self- 
sufficing  not  less  than  a  self-sufficient  creature,  and  that  her  independence 
of  man  would  cause  him  to  relapse  into  barbarism.  Indeed  the  first  institu- 
tion that  asked  authority  to  confer  degrees  upon  women  was  refused  on  the 
avowed  grounds  that  should  women  wear  titles  and  degrees  it  would  cheapen 
academic  honors  in  the  esteem  of  men  and  abate  their  intellectual  enthusiasm. 

(V.)  The  third  class  of  objectors  considered  neither  the  happiness  of  women 
nor  the  complacency  of  men  as  of  primary  importance,  but  saw  in  the  higher 
education  of  women  a  menace  to  the  State  as  well  as  to  the  family  and  soci- 
ety. These  opponents  of  higher  education  were  quick  to  discern  its  out- 
come ;  indeed,  they  saw  it  when  advocates  denied  it,  and  so  the  London 
Quarterly,  in  an  article  upon  the  education  of  women,  long  ago  said  : 

But,  whatever  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  may  think,  England  is  not  prepared  for  either  female 
suffrage  or  a  female  Parliament;  for  women  as  poor-law  guardians,  attendants  at 
vestries,  public  lecturers,  public  speakers,  doctors,  lawyers,  clergy,  or  even,  to  any 
much  greater  extent  than  at  present,  as  authors. 

It  will  be  tesn  that  the  three  classes  of  objectors  sustain  one  another,  and 
that  all  of  the  objections  cited  rest  upon  the  ultimate  conviction  that  woman 


Education.  55 

was  destined  to  a  subordinate  role  in  the  drama  of  life.  The  student  finds 
aU  early  systems  of  education  resting  upon  this  conviction,  and  upon  its 
corollary,  that  boys  must  be  trained  to  be  useful  and  girls  to  be  pleasing. 
The  application  of  this  theory  reveals  a  flaw  in  it,  since  in  the  every-day 
world  nothing  pleases  like  usefulness, ^nd  nothing  is  so  universally  displeas- 
ing as  incapacity.  Those  who  pleaded  the  weakness  of  women  as  a  reason 
for  barring  them  out  of  colleges  and  universities  were  equally  illogical,  since 
education  is  the  one  substitute  for  physical  strength  accepted  by  the  practi- 
cal world — is,  indeed,  the  only  possession,which  in  that  world  can  supple- 
ment weakness  and  enable  it  to  compete  with  strength.  The  false  philosophy 
which  diminishingly  continues  to  obstruct  the  efforts  of  women  to  secure  for 
their  sex  equal  opportunities  for  the  higher  education  has  its  origin  in  an 
ignoble  conception  of  the  purpose  of  individual  life  quite  regardless  of  sex. 
In  the  early  history  of  education  young  men  were  no  more  encouraged  to 
pursue  college  culture  for  the  benefit  it  would  be  to  themselves  than  young 
women  now  are.  The  New  England  colleges  were  in  the  first  instance  con- 
secrated to  the  training  of  clergymen  and  school-masters.  There  is,  there- 
fore, no  occasion  for  surprise  that  they  did  not  receive  women.  So  long  as 
the  college  said  :  "I  will  make  my  alumni  into  clergymen  and  professors," 
society  naturally  reasoned  :  "  The  college  is  no  place  for  our  daughters  since 
they  are  to  be  neither  pastors  nor  pedagogues."  When  the  college  said: 
"  My  institution  is  as  necessary  for  the  lawyer  and  the  physician  as  it  is  for 
the  priest  and  the  professor,"  society  was  justified  in  the  opinion  that  a  cul- 
ture whose  avowed  object  was  to  prepare  its  possessors  for  certain  definite 
lines  of  professional  service,  was  neither  required  by  the  members  of  a  sex 
excluded  from  these  lines  of  service,  nor  adapted  to  them.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  the  Massachusetts  legislature  passed  a  law  making  women 
legally  eligible  to  be  employed  as  teachers  in  1789,  the  year  that  dates  the 
first  demand  for  the  higher  education  of  women  ;  and  one  is  not  surprised  to 
find  that  the  first  institutions  offering  improved  facilities  to  women  were 
dedicated  to  the  almost  sole  purpose  of  producing  missionaries  and  teachers. 
In  harmony  with  this  purpose  society  demanded  that  women  who  aspired 
to  the  higher  education  should,  like  men,  meet  the  test  of  utility.  The 
pass- words  of  the  practical  world — "What  can  you  do?"  "What  do  you 
wish  to  do?"  "How  do  you  propose  to  use  your  education?" — although 
they  reveal  a  very  low  conception  of  the  best  results  of  culture  and  imply 
an  utter  ignorance  of  the  highest  reason  for  desiring  it,  have  still  been  of 
inestimable  advantage  to  women.  There  are  yet  parents,  who  in  reply  to 
the  question,  "Shall  you  send  your  daughters  to  college?  "  say,  "Oh,  no 
indeed.  My  daughters  will  never  have  to  do  anything  for  a  living.  We 
are  quite  able  to  support  them,"  sometimes  adding:  "  They  will  probably 
marry  early;  we  wish  them  to  do  so."  Utterances  of  this  character  imply 
that  the  higher  education  is  valued  primarily,  perhaps  solely,  for  the  income 


56  International  Council  of  Women. 

it  will  yield.  It  was  this  valuation  of  it  which  led  society  in  the  early 
period  of  higher  education  to  interpret  the  desire  for  it  in  women  as  a  con- 
fession of  poverty.  It  is  possible  that  if  the  statistics  were  ascertainable 
they  would  show  that  a  majority  of  the  alumnae  of  the  fourteen  institutions 
admitted  to  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae  began  their  college  course 
with  the  idea  of  its  possible  pecuniary  availability  in  mind.  It  is  certain 
that  few  women  have  gone  far  in  the  higher  education,  whatever  their  opin- 
ions upon  beginning  its  pursuit,  without  growing  into  the  conviction  that 
usefulness  adds  a  grace  to  the  most  graceful  woman.  So  the  practical  spirit 
with  its  fatiguing  challenge,  "What  are  you  going  to  do?"  has  yielded 
the  double  advantage,  that  because  of  it  enlarged  activities  have  resulted 
from  the  higher  education  of  women,  and  have  also  been  an  argument  for 
bestowing  it  upon  them. 

However,  one  of  the  surest  measures  of  the  growing  favor  enjoyed  by  the 
higher  education  in  this  country  is  the  increasing  number  of  young  women 
registered  annually  in  our  colleges,  with  whom  its  availability  as  a  means  of 
support,  if  it  enter  at  all  as  a  motive  into  their  college  career,  can  do  so 
to  a  very  remote  and  inconsiderable  degree.  The  a  priori  objections  above 
cited,  all  based  on  the  subordinate  position  of  women,  were  met  by  a  priori 
arguments  based  on  the  dignity  and  nobility  of  the  human  soul,  but  an 
incredulous  world  cared  more  for  the  replies  to  its  doubts  which  were 
afforded  by  experience.  The  struggle  between  aspiring  womanhood  and 
sceptical  society  has  been  fruitful  of  experiments.  Out  of  this  struggle  our 
present  educational  opportunities  have  grown.  Dry  as  statistics  generally 
are  considered,  they  are  of  interest  when  they  assume  the  form  of  an  inven- 
tory of  one's  own  possessions.  Therefore  I  shall  make  no  apology  for  pre- 
senting a  table  which  shows  the  condition  of  what  the  Bureau  of  Education 
calls  "The  Superior  Education  of  Women"  in  the  United  States  in  the 
year  1886.  The  figures  here  presented  would  have  seemed  to  Emma  Willard 
and  the  ambitious  young  women  whom  she  attracted  to  Troy  precious  as 
title  deeds  to  the  fairest  estates  of  El  Dorado,  and  as  intangible  as  the  sun- 
tipped  towers  of  vanishing  air-castles. 

Colleges  for  women  only 266 

Co-educational  colleges 207 

Other  higher  institutions  admitting  women  : 

Agricultural  and  mechanical 17 

Scientific 3 

Medical 36 

Total 529 

In  all  of  the  above  institutions  women  were  registered  as  follows: 

In  institutions  for  women  only 27,143 

Women  in  co-educational  institutions 8,833 

Total 35,976 


Education.  57 

All  of  these  young  women  of  1886  were  undoubtedly  pursuing  what,  in 
popular  phrase,  passes  for  higher  education  and  were  enjoying  what,  to  the 
women  of  1800  or  even  to  those  of  1848,  would  have  seemed  liberal  advan- 
tages. But  in  trying  to  estimate  justly  our  present  educational  conditions 
we  must  not  be  overcome  by  figures.  We  must  repress  the  elation  which 
may  naturally  follow  the  above  results  of  "  taking  an  inventory."  And  yet 
the  deductions  demanded  by  fairness  and  the  further  abatements  suggested 
by  prudence  being  made,  enough  will  remain  to  occasion  gratitude  and  to 
justify  hope. 

Any  close  application  of  high  college  standards  would  materially  alter  the 
above  numbers.  Only  four  of  the  266  Women's  Colleges  and  only  eleven  of 
the  207  co-educational  Colleges  and  Universities  are  admitted  to  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Collegiate  Alumnae  (an  organization  whose  standard  is  high). 
Though  other  institutions  are  doubtless  as  worthy  as  those  already  included 
in  the  Collegiate  Alumna?  Association,  it  is  probably  true  that  less  than  one- 
half  of  the  529  nominal  colleges  are  doing  real  college  work. 

Again,  the  degree  to  which  the  public  recognizes  woman's  claim  to  the 
higher  education  is  not  indicated  by  a  mere  statement  of  the  opportunities 
provided  for  the  education  of  young  women,  but,  side  by  side  with  these 
must  be  considered  the  opportunities  provided  by  the  same  community  for 
the  higher  education  of  its  young  men. 

In  1886  there  were  open  to  young  men  : 

Universities  and  Colleges 346 

Schools  of  Science 90 

Schools  of  Theology, 142 

Schools  of  Law, 49 

Schools  of  Medicine,  Dentistry,  and  Pharmacy, 175 

Total, 802 

This  total  is  to  be  compared  with  529,  the  number  of  corresponding  institutions  for  women. 

Students  were  registered  in  these  institutions  as  follows  : 

Colleges  and  Universities, 41,848 

Schools  of  Science , 10,532 

Schools  of  Theology 6,344 

Schools  of  Law .  3,054 

Schools  of  Medicine,  etc., 16,407 

Total, 78,185 

This  total  is  to  be  compared  with  35,976,  the  number  of  young  women  enrolled  in  similar 
institutions. 

As  the  education  received  by  women  at  Normal  Schools  is  that  training 
which  most  closely  corresponds  with  the  professional  training  received  in 
special  schools  which  generally  are  open  to  men  only,  it  may  be  fair  to 
include  Normal  Schools  in  this  computation,  though  it  must  be  stated  that 
the  best  Normal  School  gives  no  equivalent  for  a  college  and  that  the  educa- 
tion received  is  inferior  to  that  of  the  average  school  of  medicine,  law,  or 
5 


58  International  Council  of  Women. 

theology.     Normal  schools  are  almost  without  exception  co-educational,  and 
there  were  in  this  country,  in  1886  : 

Public  Normal  Schools, 117 

Private  Normal  Schools 36 

With  students  registered  as  follows  : 

Women  in  Public  Normals, 22,185 

Women  in  Private  Normals, (about)    5,000 

Total, (about)  27,185 

Men  in  Public  Normals, 9,616 

Men  in  Private  Normals, (about)    3,000 

Total,        .        .        ,        .        . (about)  12,616 

The  returns  from  private  normals  are  inexact.  Comparing  the  above 
figures  we  find  that  there  are  65-f-per  cent,  as  many  higher  institutions  open 
to  women  as  to  men  ;  that  excluding  normal  students  of  both  sexes  from 
our  computation  there  are  46— j—  percent,  as  many  women  as  men  in  institutions 
for  superior  instruction,  and  including  normal  students  of  both  sexes,  there 
are  69— |—  per  cent,  as  many  young  women  as  young  men  in  such  institutions. 
The  relative  number  of  institutions  of  learning  open  to  both  sexes,  and  the 
relative  number  of  both  in  these  institutions,  are  neither  the  sole  nor  the 
most  reliable  gauges  of  the  relative  interest  felt  by  the  public  in  their  edu- 
cation. Communities  and  States,  like  individuals,  express  their  opinions  in 
their  investments.  The  actual  and  relative  investments  in  the  means  of 
higher  education  for  the  two  sexes,  in  1886,  stood  thus: 

Value  of  Grounds,  Buildings  and  Apparatus  of  Colleges  for  Women,    .  $9,635,282 

Productive  Funds  of  Colleges  for  Women, 2,376,619 

Income  from  Productive  Funds, 136,801 

Value  of  Grounds,  Buildings  and  Apparatus  of  Colleges  for  Men,        .    $62,3 "6,638 

Productive  Funds  of  Colleges  for  Men, 57,782,303 

Income  from  Productive  Funds, 3,271,991 

The  disparity  between  the  properties  belonging  to  their  respective  institu- 
tions is  greater  than  that  between  the  number  of  institutions  belonging  to 
both  sexes,  and  much  greater  than  the  disproportion  between  the  numbers 
of  men  and  women  who  are  registered  as  students  in  these  institutions.  I 
repeat  the  ratios  existing  between  institutions  and  between  numbers  of  stu- 
dents that  the  contrast  between  those  ratios  and  the  ratios  of  resources  may 
be  more  evident.  There  are  63-f-  per  cent,  as  many  nominally  higher  institu- 
tions for  women  as  for  men  ;  there  are  46—}—  per  cent,  as  many  young  women 
as  young  men  receiving  the  nominally  higher  education  ;  but  the  value  of 
the  buildings,  grounds,  and  apparatus  for  women's  institutions  is  but  15-f-  per 
cent,  of  the  values  of  the  corresponding  properties  of  men's  institutions; 
the  productive  funds  of  women's  institutions  and  the  income  from  the  pro- 
ductive funds  of  women's  colleges  is  but  4-f-  per  cent,  of  the  income  yielded 
by  the  productive  funds  of  the  colleges  and  universities  for  men.     In  this 


Education.  59 

connection  is  another  significant  fact.  According  to  the  report  of  the  Edu- 
cational Bureau,  there  were  in  the  year  1886  no  State  appropriations 
made  for  the  support  of  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  for  women,  while 
State  appropriations  amounting  to  $1,690,275  were  in  that  year  made  for  the 
higher  institutions  of  learning  for  men. 

The  following  computations  are  not  without  interest,  and  will  make  the 
charge  of  partial  statement  impossible.  Including  co-educational  colleges, 
the  opportunities  of  women  are  62  per  cent,  as  valuable  as  those  of  men. 
They  share  the  benefit  of  51  per  cent,  as  great  productive  funds,  and  53  per 
cent,  as  large  an  income.  Attention  to  the  facts  here  presented  should 
silence  the  declarations  which  one  frequently  hears  to  the  effect  that  oppor- 
tunities for  education  are  now  as  good  and  as  abundant  for  women  as  for 
men.  Such  declarations  are  not  true,  and  gratitude  for  the  present  oppor- 
tunities should  not  blind  us  to  the  inequalities  which  remain.  The  demand 
for  the  highest  educational  opportunities  does  not  necessarily  imply  the 
demand  for  co-education,  but  the  last  tables  given  above  show  that  in  the 
United  States  these  demands  are  practically  identical.  Thus,  266  women's 
colleges  have  property  amounting  to  $9,635,282,  while  207  co-educational 
colleges  have  corresponding  properties  to  the  amount  of  $29,611,144,  and 
the  139  colleges  to  which  men  only  are  admitted,  own  corresponding 
properties  to  the  amount  of  $32,745,474. 

Of  the  institutions  which  have  assisted  the  higher  education  of  women  in 
this  country,  Troy  Seminarv  (1821),  Oberlin  College  (1833),  Vassar  Col- 
lege (1865),  Michigan  University  (1870),  Smith  College  and  Wellesley 
College  (1875),  Harvard  Annex  (1879),  anc*  Bryn  Mawr  College  (1885), 
merit  special  mention,  since  each  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  a  move- 
ment to  which  each  made  an  essentially  original  contribution,  and  to  whose 
course  each  gave  a  distinct  impulse.  Troy  Seminary,  as  has  been  stated, 
made  the  first  application  for  State  aid.  Mrs.  Willard,  in  speaking  of  the 
rejection  of  her  application  for  such  assistance,  wrote  :  "  Could  I  have  died  a 
martyr  in  the  cause  (of  female  education)  and  thus  have  insured  its  success, 
I  should  have  blessed  the  fagot  and  hugged  the  stake."  This  is  the  spirit 
which  has  animated  many  a  woman  whose  service  has  contributed  to  our 
opportunities.  It  is  a  spirit  which  should  be  remembered  on  this  occasion 
with  reverent  gratitude.  Oberlin  College  was  the  first  exponent  of  co- 
education; Vassar  was  the  first  woman's  college  marking  the  differentiation 
from  "Female  College."  How  novel  its  conception  was  is  revealed  in  the 
correspondence  of  its  founder.  When  the  idea  of  this  college  was  germinat- 
ing in  the  mind  of  Matthew  Vassar,  in  1858,  he  laid  his  plan  before  William 
Chambers,  the  distinguished  publisher  and  philanthropist  of  Edinburgh,  and 
solicited  his  advice.  In  his  reply,  after  expressing  his  astonishment  at  Mr. 
Vassar's  plan,  Mr.  Chambers  attempts  to  dissuade  him  from  a  design  which, 
he  assures  him,  will  result  in  ignominious  failure,  and  urges  him  to  apply  the 


60  International  Council  of  Women. 

money  rather  in  founding  a  school  for  the  blind,  for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  or 
for  the  feeble-minded. 

Michigan  University  was  the  first  example  of  a  strong,  well-endowed,  and 
numerously-attended  institution  opening  its  doors  to  women  on  equal  terms 
with  men,  on  the  ground  that  any  educational  institution  supported  by  the 
State  belongs  equally  to  all  of  the  children  of  that  State.  Special  commit- 
tees from  many  institutions  in  this  country  and  from  Europe  and  South 
America,  have  been  sent  to  inspect  the  workings  of  the  novel  system  at  Ann 
Arbor,  and  its  success  has  promoted  the  extension  of  co-education  in  the 
United  States,  in  France  and  in  England.  Smith  stood  for  three  ideas 
new  to  colleges  for  women,  viz:  Greek  as  an  entrance  requirement;  the 
•entire  absence  of  the  preparatory  department,  which,  as  an  attachment  to 
most  women's  colleges,  has  so  seriously  impaired  college  work  proper;  and 
the  cottage  system  of  dormitories.  Wellesley  was  the  first  Woman's  College 
to  place  itself  under  the  exclusive  administration  of  women  ;  the  mere  fact 
that  the  President  of  this  strong,  prosperous  institution  was  a  woman  has 
heightened  intellectual  respect  for  women  throughout  our  country.  The 
Annex  made  the  highest  opportunities  for  instruction  for  the  first  time  access- 
ible to  women  ;  and,  by  making  its  entrance  examinations  identical  with 
those  of  Harvard  University,  it  has  made  a  standard  for  secondary  instruc- 
tion. Bryn  Mawr,  availing  herself  of  all  previous  experiments,  made  a  dis- 
tinct advance,  and  stands  essentially  for  scholarship.  Here  is  a  Woman's 
College  in  whose  curriculum,  accomplishments,  in  the  fashionable  sense,  have 
no  part ;  a  Woman's  College  which  affords  no  chaperonage  and  warrants  no 
personal  supervision  of  its  students;  one  which  offers  young  women  collegiate 
and  post-graduate  training  on  the  same  severe  terms  of  absolute  personal  free- 
dom and  personal  responsibility  which  the  highest  colleges  for  young  men 
offer  their  students. 

This  survey  of  existing  advantages  reveals  our  needs.  Secondary  instruc- 
tion must  be  improved.  This  will  be  effected  by  a  higher  standard  of  College 
admission.  Colleges  can  make  a  common  standard  by  rising  to  the  highest 
now  fixed,  but  they  can  do  this  only  if  their  endowments  are  large  enough 
to  make  them  independent  of  tuition  fees.  Women,  to  aid  higher  education, 
must  become  the  patrons  of  its  institutions.  Wisdom  indicates  that  their 
bequests  and  gifts  will  be  most  beneficial  if  added  to  strong  instead  of  weak 
foundations.  Let  them  give  to  existing  colleges  instead  of  planting  new 
ones.  Let  them  give  to  the  richest  and  ablest  of  existing  colleges  that  admit 
women,  and  let  them  endow  colleges  for  women  in  Universities  like  Harvard 
and  Johns  Hopkins  so  munificently  that  these  stately  institutions  will  desire 
the  alliance.  Let  women  endow  scholarships  and  fellowships  for  women  in 
the  best  institutions,  that  the  ambition  of  young  women  may  be  stimulated 
and  that  there  may  be  a  new  meeting  ground  where  merit  alone  will  fix  one's 
position.  These  are  lines  of  work  whose  development  the  limits  of  the  pres- 
ent address  do  not  allow. 


Education.  61 

In  considering  this  long  struggle  for  educational  opportunity,  a  struggle 
whose  last  field  is  yet  far  removed,  one  must  not  permit  resentment  to  dis- 
tort the  vision.  There  is  in  truth  little  occasion  for  resentment.  So  far  as 
our  own  country  is  concerned,  the  work  of  reducing  a  new  continent  to  cul- 
tivation and  of  supplanting  barbarism  with  civilization,  has  been  so  vast  that 
every  person  has  been  valued  by  his  ability  to  aid  in  this  work,  and  every 
education  has  been  measured  by  the  degree  to  which  it  would  prepare  its 
possessor  for  this  work.  Society  has  not  so  continually  and  consciously  dis- 
criminated against  women,  as  it  has  consciously  and  continually  discriminated 
against  culture  as  an  end,  and  in  favor  of  culture  as  a  means  to  lower  ends. 
In  proportion  as  the  conviction  has  grown  that  the  higher  education  would 
assist  men  in  doing  the  work  of  men  outside  of  the  chair,  the  bar  and  the 
pulpit,  opportunities  for  their  education  have  multiplied,  and  young  men  in 
increasing  numbers  have  been  compelled  or  encouraged  to  use  these  oppor- 
tunities. 

It  is  now  admitted  that  the  higher  education  is  essential  to  the  success  of 
women  who  enter  the  fields  of  competitive  intellectual  service.  The  friends 
of  higher  education  have  now  to  prove  that  it  is  not  only  the  need  of  every 
woman  who  looks  to  an  industrial  or  professional  career  outside  of  her  home, 
but,  considering  the  ideal  interests  of  humanity,  that  it  is  the  peculiar  need  of 
young  women  whose  tastes  incline  them  to  confine  their  activities  to  home 
and  society  and  whose  circumstances  enable  them  to  do  so.  Women  stand- 
ing for  the  ideal,  representing  not  what  is,  but  what  ought  to  be,  should  not 
fear  to  proclaim  the  doctrine  that  the  higher  education  adds  its  own  intrinsic 
value  to  that  of  the  soul,  and  that  this  justifies  the  desire  for  it.  Man's 
superiority  over  the  highest  of  the  lower  animals  rests  partly  in  this,  that  he 
can  adapt  himself  to  any  climate  and  sustain  himself  on  the  products  of  any 
soil. 

Man  is  thus  self-adjusting  by  nature  ;  but  the  man  whose  natural  capacity 
for  self-adjustment  has  been  re-enforced  by  discipline  and  culture  is  hardly 
less  superior  to  the  uneducated  man  than  the  uneducated  civilized  man  is  to 
the  savage  or  than  the  savage  is  to  the  brute.  The  education  which  adapts  its 
possessor  to  one  certain  condition  of  society,  and  to  one  place  and  activity 
in  that  social  state,  renders  him  helpless  whenever  a  social  or  indus- 
trial change  occurs.  The  uneducated  man  who  knows  but  one  craft  or 
occupation  regards  the  inventor  as  his  enemy  and  sees  in  each  new  dis- 
covery a  competitor.  Such  a  man  finds  himself  stranded  by  progress,  while 
his  educated  fellow-laborer  can  avail  himself  of  the  invention  which,  in  rob- 
bing him  of  his  old  work,  gives  him  a  higher  task.  With  as  much  natural 
tact  and  self-adaptation  as  man,  such  is  the  paralyzing  influence  which  a 
narrow  education  and  the  continual  direction  of  her  thoughts  to  the  domestic 
functions  has  exerted  upon  her,  that  inability  to  adjust  herself  to  new  cir- 
cumstances is  as  marked  a  trait  of  the  average  woman  of  the  upper  classes,  as 
it  is  of  the  average  man  in  the  lowest  and  narrowest  handicraft. 


62  International  Council  of  Women. 

This  incapacity  for  self-adjustment  is  the  cause  of  the  most  pitiable  object 
and  the  origin  of  the  saddest  phrase  in  our  language,  viz.,  "The  decayed 
gentlewoman."  This  hapless  creature  is  the  result  of  a  social  custom  which 
demands  that  young  women,  whose  families  are  in  comfortable  ciicumstances, 
shall  play  with  the  half  dozen  years  which  intervene  between  school  and 
marriage.  This  is  the  very  class  of  young  women  from  which  college  candi- 
dates should  come.  They  have  ability,  means,  leisure.  It  is  the  next  duty 
of  women  who  stand  for  high  purposes  to  create  a  public  opinion  which  shall 
encourage,  nay,  compel  these  young  women  to  pursue  the  higher  education. 

The  principle  of  the  division  of  labor  finds  novel  application  in  modern 
life  and  especially  in  what,  even  in  a  democratic  community,  miy  be  called 
the  higher  social  circles.  In  such  circles  in  the  United  States  men  are,  by 
common  consent,  the  guardians  of  material  interests,  while  women,  by  the 
same  authority,  assume  the  direction  of  social  (including  spiritual)  interests. 
Consider  for  an  instant  what  interests  are  represented  in  this  Council.  Al- 
most every  one  of  the  eighty  women  on  this  programme  represents  a  con- 
stituency, an  organized  constituency  of  women.  Each  of  these  constituencies 
numbers  its  members  by  scores,  hundreds,  thousands,  some  of  them  even  by 
scores  and  hundreds  of  thousands. 

These  constituencies  are  organized  to  protect  and  promote  moral  issues 
which  concern  every  class  of  every  nationality  ;  to  carry  forward  reforms 
whose  object  is  to  free  manhood  from  the  thraldom  of  sensuality  and  to 
arouse  womanhood  out  of  its  selfish  indifference  and  inertia.  In  no  work  is 
the  higher  education,  with  all  of  the  aspirations  which  it  fosters  and  all  of  the 
latent  power  which  it  liberates,  more  constantly  available  than  in  solving  the 
problems  which  arise  in  working  with  a  part  of  humanity  for  the  good  of  all 
of  it.  I  am  sure  we  are  all  conscious  that  women  as  a  class  are  inadequately 
equipped  for  the  service  which  humanity  expects  from  them,  which  their 
hearts  incline  them  to  do.  It  must  be  admitted  that  all  women  of  this  time 
are  self-made,  for  even  the  most  highly  educated  women,  even  those  educated 
by  the  regular  agencies  of  college  and  university,  have  for  the.most  part  been 
permitted  merely,  not  encouraged,  and  have  a  consciousness  that  they  have 
directed  their  own  development.  It  must  be  admitted  that  many  conspicu- 
ously useful  and  noble  women  suffer  from  defects  which  are  the  results  and  the 
signs  of  self- making.  They  lack  symmetry  and  a  sense  of  proportion,  and 
are  thus  betrayed  into  inaccuracies,  exaggerations  and  partial  views.  Vanity 
impels  the  self-made  to  boast  of  their  limitations  as  of  high  qualities,  since 
they  consider  every  limitation  a  proof  of  native  power.  Only  enormous 
and  exceptional  moral  force  will  save  such  an  one  from  becoming  a  charlatan 
and  a  demagogue.  Philanthropists,  humanitarians,  and  social  reformers 
should  be  fed  on  the  fruits  of  such  knowledge  as  philosophy,  science, 
economics,  politics,  history,  and  civil  government.  They  need  the  discipline 
which  comes  from  long  drill  in  logic,  mathematics,  and  the  classics — the  dis- 


Education.  63 

cipline  which  will  give  a  delight  in  accuracy,  a  sense  ot  justice,  moderation, 
and  an  ability  to  shift  one's  point  of  view.  The  division  of  labor  between 
the  sexes  indicated  above,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  problems  which  woman 
has  volunteered  to  solve,  demand  proportional  preparation. 

Some  one  objects  that  culture  is  selfish  and  is  not  the  food  upon  which 
philanthropists  thrive ;  that  culture  is  conservative  and  does  not  nourish 
reformers.  To  those  objections  this  Council  is  sufficient  reply.  The  object  of 
culture  is  to  grow  into  the  image  of  God — the  office  of  life  is  to  do  His  work. 
In  God  is  the  correlation  of  divine  forces,  Love,  Truth,  Wisdom,  Freedom. 
Too  long  women  have  regarded  only  one  feature  of  the  divine  parent  after 
whom  they  have  sought  to  fashion  themselves.  Without  Wisdom  the  works 
of  Love  can  not  be  done.  Culture  is  a  force  as  irresistible  as  gravity;  to  the 
class  in  which  it  centers  power  and  the  signs  of  power  will  come. 

The  next  speaker  was  Pundita  Ramabai  Sarasvati,  the 
cultured  and  beloved  Hindoo,  now  endeavoring  to  secure  in 
this  country  co-operation  in  the  work  of  educating  the  child- 
widows  of  India. 

THE    WOMEN    OF    INDIA. 

Pundita  Ramabai.  My  object  in  appearing  before  you  to-night  is  to  tell 
you  something  of  the  educational  condition  of  the  women  in  India. 

In  olden  times  in  our  country  the  custom  used  to  be  that  some  few  men 
and  only  a  very  few  women  were  allowed  to  be  educated.  Those  who  were 
especially  of  the  family  of  what  we  call  the  Brahmins,  or  priestly  caste,  a 
handful  of  them  had  obtained  higher  education,  and  were  also  standing  at 
that  time  on  the  same  footing  as  our  great  men.  They  used  to  hold  discourse 
with  men  on  equal  terms,  and  it  is  said  in  some  of  the  secret  books  of  the 
Hindoos  that  once  on  a  time  there  was  a  woman  who  wielded  great  power 
over  the  assembly  of  sages,  and  even  held  conversation  with  one  of  the 
greatest  philosophers  of  that  time.  Afterwards  it  was  thought  best  by  our 
men  to  keep  the  women  completely  in  ignorance,  so  that  they  might  have  more 
power  over  them.  I  do  not  blame  them  for  that ;  it  was  quite  natural  they 
wanted  to  have  power  over  them,  and,  of  course,  our  men  were  very  intelli- 
gent and  bright,  as  a  rule,  and  these  men  had  discovered  the  fact  that  if 
education  was  given  to  women  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to  keep  them 
under  complete  subjection.  They  wanted  to  make  the  women  slaves  of  the 
husbands,  and  it  was  said  by  the  government  that  a  woman  should  never  have 
any  other  god  but  her  husband,  and  of  course  an  educated  woman  would 
doubt  the  fact  whether  some  men  could  be  divine  beings. 

Ignorant  people,  and  even  sometimes  intelligent  people,  take  anything  on 
the  teaching  of  their  priests  ;  and  the  ignorant  women  of  India  are  told  by 
the  priests  that  they  have  no  place  in  heaven  but  through  their  husbands, 
and  their  salvation  must  be  obtained  through  their  husbands,  and  if  they  are 


64  International  Council  of  Women. 

in  subjection  to  them  and  always  do  what  the  priests  say  they  will  be  all  right ; 
there  is  no  necessity  of  their  having  education.  Moreover,  it  is  thought 
that  man  is  woman's  shield,  as  an  umbrella  that  shields  any  person  from  sun- 
shine or  rain  ;  and  also  he  is  thought  to  defend  woman  from  any  evils  that 
arise  in  the  world.  It  is  said  by  the  priests  that  education  will  enable  you 
to  make  a  living,  and  if  you  go  a  little  further  in  education  it  will  make  you 
a  supreme  being.  But  you  need  not  make  your  living,  the  man  will  make 
your  living  for  you,  and  if  you  are  a  good  wife  and  think  of  your  husband 
at  the  time  of  death,  you  will  be  born  a  man  the  next  time  you  come  to  this 
world. 

So  the  time  went  on,  and  women  were  completely  deprived  of  any  kind 
of  education,  except  now  and  then  we  had  some  princes  and  some  learned 
men  who  wanted  to  have  wives  beside  them  who  could  read  and  write, 
especially  some  of  our  great  princes.  And  so  a  great  many  women  were 
allowed  to  have  just  education  enough  to  make  verses  in  praise  of  the  men 
and  praise  them  all  the  time ;   so  the  men  got  all  the  good  they  could. 

But  the  common  women  were  not  allowed,  of  course,  to  have  any  educa- 
tion at  all.  There  were  some  primary  schools  in  our  country,  and  before 
the  little  girls  of  eight  or  nine  were  betrothed  they  were  allowed  to  go  with  the 
boys  and  have  some  little  lessons,  just  in  reading  and  writing.  They  seldom 
went  further  than  learning  the  alphabet  and  to  spell  their  own  names  and 
the  family  names;  that  was  all.  In  these  days  we  have  primary  schools  all 
over  India.  Some  are  established  by  the  missionaries,  some  by  the  English 
government,  and  some  are  supported  by  private  families  of  intelligent  men. 
I  should  not  say  families,  but  by  intelligent  men  alone,  and  these  schools 
give  some  little  education  to  the  women.  I  ought  not  to  say  women,  but 
little  girls  eight  or  nine  years  of  age — that  is  the  school-going  age,  and  after 
a  girl  is  nine  years  of  age  she  is  taken  from  that  school  and  betrothed  to  a 
boy  of  her  own  age,  and  that  is  the  end  of  her  education.  In  that  time  of 
two  years  she  learns  to  read  a  little. 

She  finds  in  her  reading-book  some  stories  of  animals,  about  the  dog  that 
took  a  slice  of  bread  and  crossed  a  brook  and  saw  his  shadow  in  the  brook 
and  went  after  that  shadow  and  lost  what  he  had  in  his  mouth,  and  so  the 
moral  is  taught ;  and  there  are  some  other  stories  like  that,  and  also  some 
history  and  some  geography.  But  after  a  girl  is  betrothed  she  loses  that 
opportunity  for  learning  reading  and  writing,  for  our  good  mothers-in-law 
are  very  much  opposed  to  education  of  women  as  a  rule.  These  good  moth- 
ers-in-law do  not  like  the  idea  of  their  daughters  having  any  education  or 
advantage  over  them,  and  so,  of  course,  they  are  not  allowed  to  continue  their 
education  at  all,  and  after  their  betrothal  they  have  to  forget  whatever  they 
have  learned  in  these  primary  schools. 

There  are  some  high  schools  in  our  country  ;  there  is  one  in  Calcutta,  and 
there  is  one  in  Bombay,  and  there  may  be  one  middle-class  school  in  Madras. 


Education.  65 

There  is  one  high  school  at  Poonah  also.  There  are  some  schools  a  little 
higher  than  primary  schools,  called  second-grade  schools,  to  which  girls 
go  and  learn  six  reading-books,  which  are  appointed  by  the  government. 
In  these  six  standard  books  we  have  a  few  stories  and  a  little  something 
about  the  structure  of  the  eye,  and  the  liver,  and  something  about  the  sun, 
and  the  English  government  coming  into  our  country  and  kindly  providing 
us  with  these  beautiful  things  we  have  to-day,  and  also  a  record  of  the  proc- 
lamation of  1858,  in  which  year  the  Queen  of  England  took  the  position 
of  ruler  of  India,  and  in  that  proclamation  all  the  rules  are  laid  down  how 
the  country  will  be  governed  by  the  English,  and  how  liberal  they  will  be. 
All  these  are  very  good  things  to  know. 

There  is  a  little  history — a  history  in  a  dialogue  form.  We  Orientals  are 
famous  for  these  dialogues.  One  man  asks  a  question  and  the  teacher  answers, 
and  in  that  history  we  are  told  that  India  had  no  history  of  its  own  before 
the  Europeans  went  to  India.  All  the  people  were  fighting  each  other,  and 
there  was  no  peace  and  no  comfort ;  there  were  highway  robbers  and  tigers 
and  snakes,  and  the  women  threw  their  babies  into  the  Ganges,  and  a  good 
many  people  threw  themselves  under  the  car  of  Juggernaut,  and  these  English 
people  brought  peace  to  us;  these  people  were  all  very  bad,  but  since  the 
English  government  went  there  they  have  begun  to  reform  a  little,  and  the 
English  have  treated  us  very  kindly  and  honestly,  and  all  that  is  desired  now 
is  to  be  faithful  to  the  English  government,  and  to  be  good  and  to  try  to  be 
honest.  These  are  the  things  that  are  taught  in  this  history,  and  also  we  are 
taught  in  a  dialogue  form  how  many  kings  there  were  and  how  many  battles 
were  fought  and  how  many  wives  the  kings  had,  etc. 

But  there  is  a  little  brighter  side.  In  1878  the  doors  of  the  universities  of 
India  were  thrown  open  to  women.  The  government  was  so  kind  as  to  say 
that  women  might  come  and  pass  examinations  with  men,  if  they  chose  to 
do  so,  but  of  course  that  choice  was  not  their  own.  How  could  they  do 
such  a  thing  as  that  when  there  were  no  preparatory  instructions  given  them  ? 
There  was  only  one  high  school,  and  in  that  high  school  a  woman  who  was 
examined  was  the  first  woman  who  passed  the  high  examination.  And  that 
was  the  beginning  of  the  real  high  education. 

Calcutta  has  taken  the  foremost  ground  in  woman's  higher  education. 
There  is  a  high  school  there,  and  there  are  also  a  great  many  other  advantages 
for  women,  especially  among  the  Brahmins  of  Calcutta,  called  heretics  by  the 
other  Brahmins.  These  are  not  so  much  opposed  to  the  education  of  women  ; 
they  allow  a  few  of  their  girls  to  remain  unmarried  and  give  them  higher 
education,  but  public  sentiment  is  against  them. 

A  great  change  has  taken  place  in  the  higher  education  of  women  in  India 
since  1883.  Just  one  year  before  that  time  an  educational  commission,  as  it 
was  called,  was  appointed  by  the  English  government  which  went  all  over  the 
country  and  investigated  the  matter  of  education  of  boys  and  girls,  and  these 


66  International  Council  of  Women. 

English  officials,  some  of  them,  were  very  learned  men,  who  knew  what  the 
condition  of  education  was  in  India,  and  they  appointed  representative  men 
to  come  and  give  their  testimony  as  to  the  necessary  changes  in  the  educa- 
tional system  of  the  country,  and  ever  since  that  time  many  people  have 
tried  to  get  women  to  enter  the  medical  colleges  of  India.  The  Hindoos 
liken  education  to  nectar,  and  they  say  if  women  have  education  they  will 
become  immortal  and  get  all  the  country  and  kill  the  men.  If  education  is 
given  to  women,  of  course  the  women  will  turn  on  the  men  and  tread  them 
down  and  kill  them  or  do  something  dreadful,  and  so,  of  course,  they  think  it 
best  not  to  give  them  education.  They  believe,  in  common  with  most  peo- 
ple, that  woman  was  created  from  the  rib  of  Adam,  and  just  as  the  rib  is 
crooked  so  woman  is  crooked,  and  if  they  try  to  make  her  straight  she  never 
will  be  straight,  and  since  the  object  of  education  is  to  try  to  make  people 
straight  it  is  of  no  use  to  give  it  to  woman. 

Some  said  that  the  very  constitution  of  woman  was  not  fit  for  education  ; 
these  good  angels  and  beautiful  beings  were  too  delicate  to  study  anything. 
They  were  not  too  delicate  to  work  in  the  fields,  and  carry  brick,  and  climb 
three  stories,  and  work  with  men,  and,  in  addition  to  that,  to  do  the  house- 
work and  take  care  of  the  baby,  and  take  care  of  the  husband,  too  ;  but  for 
education  they  were  too  delicate.  And  they  said  their  brains  did  not  weigh 
as  heavy  as  men's  brains,  and  so  it  was  not  best  to  give  us  any  higher  educa- 
tion at  all;  our  brains  could  not  stand  the  exertion,  and  that  the  brains,  if 
once  turned  away  from  the  housework  and  care  of  babies,  it  would  increase 
the  misery  and  bring  quarrels  into  the  family.  In  our  country  we  are  not 
strange  to  quarrels. 

Again,  at  certain  times  it  was  thought  that  it  was  necessary  for  women  to 
have  some  physicians  of  their  own  sex,  but  when  the  question  came  before 
the  government  they  hesitated  to  give  women  any  place  in  their  colleges,  so 
they  wanted  to  obtain  the  opinion  of  all  our  men  who  were  highly  edu- 
cated, and  a  good  many  of  them  answered  in  the  usual  way,  that  if  medical 
education  were  given  to  women  they  would  surely  be  unsexed  by  it,  and 
therefore  they  must  not  be  given  it.  But  somehow  or  other  a  few  people  pre- 
vailed over  this  idea  and  at  last  the  government  threw  open  the  college  doors 
to  women,  and  now  there  are  a  few  women  who  go  and  take  their  lessons  with 
men,  and,  what  I  am  proud  to  say,  in  Bombay  a  few  English  women  and  a 
few  Hindoos  and  a  few  Parsee  women  go  there  to  take  their  lessons.  When 
they  went  with  the  men  they  were  not  hooted  and  treated  badly,  but,  what  is 
very  surprising  to  know,  the  men  treated  them  very  nicely  indeed.  But 
there  are  no  separate  colleges  provided  for  women.  In  1883  one  °f  our 
high-caste  women  who  wanted  higher  education  had  no  college  open  to  her 
and  she  left  that  country  and  came  to  the  United  States  to  obtain  that  edu- 
cation. At  that  time,  of  course,  a  great  many  people  did  not  like  the  idea, 
and  some  thought  that  she  would  surely  fail,  but  it  was  proved  by  her  experi- 


Education.  67 

ence  that  even  Hindoo  women  had  some  brains;  that  even  those  high-caste 
women  who  had  been  shut  out  for  ages  and  ages  could  acquire  a  medical 
education.  And  it  was  just  two  years  ago  that  that  high-caste  woman  gradu- 
ated in  the  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania.  She  proved  that  woman  could 
learn  these  things,  and  even  that  after  learning  them  she  could  keep  her  sex 
unchanged.  She  went  to  our  country  and  died.  At  the  same  time  she  has 
done  some  work  that  will  last,  I  believe,  more  than  her  life  would. 

It  is  a  matter  of  thankfulness  to  me  that  a  few  women  in  Madras  are  tak- 
ing steps  to  have  a  medical  college,  and  there  are  some  in  Bombay  who  are 
preparing  to  be  physicians  and  practice  medicine  in  their  own  country,  and 
there  are  a  half-dozen  or  a  dozen  who  are  graduates  of  the  Calcutta  college. 
And  other  movements  are  being  employed  to  give  women  some  higher  edu- 
cation. But  the  greatest  need  of  India  to-day  is  for  women  teachers  of  our 
own  country.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  training  colleges  for  our  women. 
It  is  true  that  there  are  three  normal  schools  in  our  country,  and  in  these 
some  little  education  is  given  to  the  future  teachers. 

The  third  special  paper  on  the  topic  of  the  evening,  by  Mrs. 
Sarah  B.  Cooper,  President  of  the  Golden  Gate  Kindergarten 
Association,  was  read  by  Mrs.  Frances  E.  Parker,  of  Illinois: 

THE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  ITS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FACULTY. 

I  believe,  dear  friends,  there  is  within  us  a  vast  domain  of  unexplored  ter- 
ritory, as  yet  unpre^mpted  and  uncultivated,  toward  which  the  eye  of  Freder- 
ick Froebel,  that  great  educational  Columbus,  was  directed  with  a  steady 
and  divining  gaze.  And  to-day  the  great  educational  principles  which  he 
discovered  and  laid  down  are  going  forth  in  every  direction,  conquering  and 
to  conquer.     The  kindergarten  is  his  enduring  monument. 

The  kindergarten  concerns  itself  more  with  the  development  of  faculty 
than  with  the  mere  imparting  of  knowledge.  It  recognizes  the  fact  that  all 
true  education  is  learning  transformed  to  faculty.  It  does  not  ask  so  much, 
"  What  does  the  child  know?"  as  "Has  the  child  learned  how  to  learri?" 
It  looks  less  to  mere  acquirements  than  to  the  capacity  to  acquire.  It  is 
teaching  the  little  child  to  teach  himself.  It  is  controlling  the  little  child 
that  he  may  learn  the  art  of  self-control.  The  kindergarten  devotes  itself 
more  to  ideas  than  to  words ;  more  to  things  than  to  books.  It  begets 
within  the  child  the  power  of  assimilating  knowledge  for  the  highest  uses  of 
life. 

The  senses  are  sharpened,  the  hands  are  trained,  and  the  body  is  made 
lithe  and  active.  The  gifts  and  occupations  represent  every  kind  of  techni- 
cal activity.  The  children  must  work  for  what  they  get.  They  learn 
through  doing.  They  thus  develop  patience,  perseverance,  skill,  and  will- 
power. They  are  encouraged  by  every  fresh  achievement.  What  they 
know  they  must  know  thoroughly.     In  his  occupations  in  the  kindergarten 


68  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  child  is  required  to  handle,  combine,  and  create.  "  Let  the  very  play- 
things of  your  children  have  a  bearing  upon  the  life  and  work  of  the  coming 
man,"  said  Aristotle.  It  is  early  training  that  makes  the  master.  This 
universal  instinct  of  play  in  the  child  means  something.  It  should  be  turned 
to  good  account.  It  should  be  made  constructive  in  its  outcome  instead  of 
destructive.  This  restless  activity  of  the  child  is  the  foundation  of  the  inde- 
fatigable enterprise  of  the  man.  This  habit  of  work  must  be  formed  early 
in  life,  if  we  would  have  it  a  pleasure.  Activity  is  the  law  of  healthful  child- 
hood. Turn  it  to  good  account !  The  perceptive  faculties  in  a  well-endowed 
child  are  far  in  excess  of  the  reflective  faculties.  He  sees  everything.  He 
wants  to  know  about  everything.  He  will  find  out  if  he  can.  Sensible 
mothers  understand  this  fact,  and  keep  their  household  gods  well  out  of  the 
way  of  the  young  "heir  apparent."  Just  as  old  Dolly  Winthrop  said  in 
"  Silas  Marner  :  "  "If  you  can't  bring  your  mind  to  frighten  the  child  off 
touching  things,  you  must  do  what  you  can  to  keep  'em  out  of  the  way. 
That's  what  I  do  vvi'  the  pups  as  the  lads  are  allays  a  rearing.  They  will 
worry  and  gnaw — worry  and  gnaw  they  will,  if  it  was  one's  Sunday  cap  as 
hung  anywhere  so  as  they  could  drag  it.  They  know  no  difference,  God  help 
'em;  it's  the  pushing  o'  the  teeth  as  sets  'em  on,  that's  what's  it  is." 
That's  exactly  what  it  is  with  the  restless  child.  It's  the  pushing  of  the 
teeth — the  intellectual  molars  and  bicuspids,  so  to  speak.  They  are  getting 
ready  to  masticate  their  mental  food. 

Bodily  vigor,  mental  activity,  and  moral  integrity  are  indispensable  to  a 
perfected  lite.  All  these  are  cherished  and  developed  in  the  kindergarten. 
All  these  make  the  man  and  woman  and  prepare  them  for  efficient  work 
in  every  department  of  life.  Every  child  should  have  the  privilege  of  making 
the  most  of  himself  by  unfolding  all  that  is  in  him.  As  has  been  truly  said, 
"  the  poor  man  suffers  wrong  when  his  education  is  so  defective  that  he  can 
not  use  his  faculties  aright,  when  his  senses  are  blunted,  his  observation  and 
judgment  insecure."  This  wrong  to  the  poor  may  be  avoided  by  early  me- 
thodical training  in  the  kindergarten,  thus  fitting  them  for  industrial  pursuits. 
For  in  the  kindergarten  development,  whatever  comes  in  at  the  open  door 
of  the  senses  is  turned  into  practical  power.  Habits  of  observation  are  cul- 
tivated. Observing  is  more  than  seeing.  The  child  in  the  kindergarten  is 
taught  to  observe — that  is,  to  notice  with  attention — to  see  truly.  What  he 
learns  in  the  kindergarten  is  calculated  to  make  him  keep  his  eyes  wide  open 
to  the  world  about  him.  He  is  taught  to  think,  and  that  is  the  primal  thing. 
The  kindergarten  makes  the  knowledge  of  ideas  wait  upon  the  knowledge  of 
facts,  just  as  it  subordinates  the  cultivation  of  the  memory  to  the  develop- 
ment of  faculty — every  faculty  of  a  child  is  to  be  developed.  And  this  edu- 
cating together  the  head,  heart,  and  hand  is  the  great  need  of  the  nation 
to-day. 

The  kindergarten  is  the  best  agency  for  setting  in  motion  the  physical, 


Education.  69 

mental,  and  moral  machinery  of  a  little  child,  that  it  may  do  its  own  work 
in  its  own  way.  It  is  the  rain  and  dew  and  sun  to  wake  the  sleeping  germ 
and  bring  it  into  self-activity  and  growth.  The  heart  as  well  as  the  head 
comes  in  for  its  share  of  training.  The  kindergarten  regards  right  action  to 
be  quite  as  important  as  rare  scholarship.  It  works  for  both,  knowing  that 
ignorance  and  lack  of  character  in  the  masses  will  never  breed  wisdom  so 
long  as  ignorance  and  lack  of  character  in  the  individual  breed  folly.  What 
we  need  to  do  is  to  bring  more  happiness  into  childhood,  and  then  we  shall 
bring  more  virtue,  for  "virtue  kindles  at  the  touch  of  joy."  The  kinder- 
garten is  the  "  Paradise  of  Childhood."  Frcebel  insisted  that  education  and 
happiness  should  be  wedded  J  that  there  should  be  as  much  pleasure  in  satis- 
fying intellectual  hunger  as  physical  hunger.  And  should  not  this  be  so  ? 
Is  it  not  more  or  less  the  fault  of  methods  that  it  is  not  so  ? 

And  just  here  I  wish  to  say  that  the  moral  and  religious  influences  of  the 
kindergarten  can  scarcely  be  overestimated.  The  kindergarten  does  not  at- 
tribute every  mistake  of  a  child  to  total  depravity.  To  be  perpetually  tell- 
ing a  little  child,  even  a  very  naughty  child,  that  there  is  no  good  thing  in 
him,  that  he  is  vile  and  corrupt,  is  one  of  the  very  best  ways  of  making  a 
rascal  out  of  him  if  he  has  any  spirit  in  him,  and  of  making  a  little  hypo- 
crite out  of  him  if  he  is  mean-spirited  and  weak.  And  this  holds  equally 
true  of  all  children,  whether  they  come  from  the  palatial  homes  of  the  rich 
or  the  wretched  homes  of  the  poor.  There  is  more  ignorance  than  deprav- 
ity when  a  little  child  goes  wrong.  He  must  stumble  and  fall  many  times 
before  he  learns  to  walk  uprightly,  either  physically  or  spiritually.  He  must 
learn  to  climb  the  stairs  of  moral  difficulty  as  he  learned  to  climb  the  house- 
hold stairs.  As  we  patiently  wait  for  the  body  to  unfold  and  do  its  best, 
wisely  guiding  it  all  the  while,  so  should  we  patiently  wait  for  the  soul's 
unfolding.  All  education  is  a  growth,  not  a  creation.  And  to  all  growth 
belongs  the  element  of  time.  A  child  goes  to  the  kindergarten  as  an  appren- 
tice goes  into  a  shop,  to  learn  something.  He  knows  little.  He  has  every- 
thing to  find  out.  His  mind  is  the  tool-chest.  His  faculties  are  the  imple- 
ments. Suppose  he  does  make  mistakes.  His  mistakes  are  not  depravity. 
We  are  none  of  us  born  with  the  "trade  of  conduct  "  learned.  What  are 
the  mistakes  of  a  child  ?  It  is  the  little  carpenter  at  work  with  the  hammer 
and  nails,  trying  his  best  to  drive  the  nail,  but  hitting  his  thumb  instead  of 
the  nail.  Poor  little  fellow  !  He  has  the  worst  of  it.  See  that  irrepressible 
boy  !  The  basilar  faculties  in  him  are  tremendous.  They  are  the  drive- 
wheels  which,  rightly  used,  will  make  him  a  leader  and  a  commander  among 
men.  Train  that  boy  in  and  through  these  faculties.  All  the  faculties  have 
mates.  Over  against  combativeness  stands  benevolence.  If  the  former  is 
likely  to  get  on  the  rampage,  touch  up  the  latter.  If  courage  is  likely  to 
mount  into  rashness,  touch  up  fear  a  little.  The  primal  ideal  of  all  govern- 
ment should  be  to  teach  a  child  to  govern  himself  at  the  earliest  possible 


70  International  Council  of  Women. 

period.  And  to  learn  how  to  govern  himself  a  child  must  be  indulged  in 
self-government.  The  true  teacher  will  be  aiming  all  the  time  at  the  child's 
enfranchisement — not  in  making  him  an  unwilling  slave.  The  law  of  kind- 
ness bodied  forth  in  eye  and  lip  and  hand  will  make  a  royal  government. 
The  rafters  of  love  will  make  a  home  of  law.  And  this  is  the  principle  on 
which  the  kindergarten  governs  its  pupils. 

The  law  of  duty  is  recognized  by  the  little  ones  as  the  law  of  love.  They 
are  taught  to  love  one  another,  to  help  one  another,  to  be  kind  to  one  another, 
to  care  for  one  another.  The  child  in  the  kindergarten  is  not  only  told  to 
be  good,  but  he  is  actually  helped  to  be  good.  The  very  foundations  on 
which  true  character  rests  are  laid  in  the  kindergarten.  Habits  of  virtue, 
truth,  purity  and  usefulness  are  here  inculcated,  and  what  is  character  but 
crystallized  habit? 

As  to  the  moral  effect  of  the  kindergarten,  a  little  three-year-old  can  best 
tell  the  story.  A  bright  little  blonde  lassie  of  three  years,  belonging  to  one 
of  our  kindergartens,  was  holding  tightly  the  hand  of  her  lady  guardian  as 
they  wandered  among  the  marvels  of  the  Mechanics'  Institute  Fair.  It  was 
high  carnival  with  the  little  kindergarteners.  This  nervous  little  midget  was 
wild  with  delight  at  the  wonderful  things  to  be  seen  on  every  hand.  Just 
then  she  was  delving  into  the  mysteries  of  the  chicken  incubator.  Suddenly 
one  of  the  regular  deputized  policemen  who  do  duty  during  the  fair  passed 
by.     He  did  not  escape  the  vigilance  of  "  little  blue  eyes." 

"See,  there's  a  perlice  !  "  she  ejaculated,  with  resonant,  ringing  tone, 
pointing  her  little  finger  deprecatingly  as  she  spoke.  "  There  he  goes,"  she 
added,  with  increased  fervor.  "  Why,  he  needn't  be  a  watchin'  of  us,  'cos 
we  don't  nip  nothin'  now,  sence  we  went  to  the  kindergarten  !  " 

The  poor  little  dear — she  had  no  idea  that  a  "perlice"  could  have  any 
other  possible  vocation  than  to  be  watching  her  and  the  other  little  Barbary 
Coasters,  who  had  been  wont  aforetime  to  "nip"  fruit  and  vegetables  on 
the  sly  as  a  sort  of  filial  duty  imposed  by  thriftless,  shiftless  parentage. 

Ten  years  ago  there  was  not  a  single  free  kindergarten  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  There  are  now  over  thirty  in  Sa  i  Francisco  alone,  including 
those  in  orphanages  and  day  homes.  Branching  out  from  San  Francisco  as 
a  center,  they  have  extended  in  every  direction,  from  the  extreme  northern 
part  of  Washington  Territory  to  Lower  California  and  New  Mexico,  and 
they  have  planted  themselves  in  Oregon,  Nevada,  Colorado,  and  in  almost 
every  large  city  in  California.  The  work  in  San  Francisco  has  been  phe- 
nomenal. No  city  in  the  Union  has  made  more  rapid  strides  in  this  work 
among  the  little  children  than  San  Francisco.  This  is  owing  to  the  fact  that 
persons  of  large  wealth  have  been  induced  to  study  the  work  for  themselves, 
and  have  become  convinced  of  its  permanent  and  essential  value  to  the  State. 
Foremost  among  those  who  have  given  to  the  support  of  these  kindergartens 
is  Mrs.  Leland  Stanford,  who  has,  from  first  to   last,  given  over  $30,000  to 


Education.  71 

the  support  of  these  beneficent  schools  for  the  neglected  children  of  San 
Francisco.  Over  eight  hundred  children  have  been  under  training  in  the 
Stanford  kindergartens  the  past  year.  Mrs.  Senator  Hearst  and  others  of 
generous  mind  also  support  these  schools. 

As  the  kindergarten  is  the  very  basis  of  technical  and  industrial  education, 
Mrs.  Stanford  has  made  a  study  of  it,  in  connection  with  the  great  plans 
contemplated  by  the  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University.  The  necessity  of 
unfolding  the  minds  of  little  children  through  their  senses,  rather  than  dwarf- 
ing them  through  the  meaningless  repetition  of  mere  words,  is  coming  to  be 
felt  more  and  more  by  all  thoughtful  educators.  It  is  the  aim  of  the  kinder- 
garten to  make  men  and  women  who  will  be  self-governing  and  thus  be  a 
law  unto  themselves ;  men  and  women  who  will  succeed  by  their  own  skill 
and  industry.  Hence  the  kindergarten  gets  hold  of  the  little  child  just  as 
early  in  life  as  possible — the  earlier  the  better.  It  believes,  with  Lord  Brough- 
ham,  that  a  child  can  and  does  learn  more  before  the  age  of  six  years  than 
it  does  or  can  learn  after  that  age  during  his  whole  lite,  however  long  it  may 
be.  For  this  is  the  root-life  of  the  human  plant,  and  the  root-life  must  for- 
ever determine  what  the  stem  and  blossom  shall  be.  In  short,  the  world  is 
beginning  to  recognize  the  fact  that  a  general  education  that  has  not  in  it 
some  provision  for  a  special  education  and  training  in  some  particular  in- 
dustry is  practically  a  failure.  Technical  and  industrial  education  for  the 
people  is  no  theory.  It  is  a  question  of  civilization.  It  is  a  national  ques- 
tion, and  touches  the  very  existence  of  the  state.  The  kindergarten  lies  at 
the  foundation  of  this  sort  of  education.  All  honor,  then,  to  those  who 
foster  these  blessed  schools  for  little  children. 

Governor  Stanford  struck  the  key-note  when  he  said  that  he  believed  the 
surest  foundation  on  which  any  educational  structure  could  rest  was  the  rock 
of  thorough  kindergarten  training,  begun  at  the  earliest  possible  age — at 
the  age  when  moral  and  industrious  habits  are  most  easily  formed,  the  taste 
improved,  and  the  finer  feelings  which  give  fiber  to  the  will  are  cultivated. 
*     *     * 

And  the  primal  aim  of  all  education,  from  the  kindergarten  straight 
through  to  the  university,  should  be  the  unfolding  of  all  that  is  in  the  human 
being,  the  equipping  of  the  young  for  maintaining  themselves  in  honest 
independence.  Some  one  has  said  there  are  three  ways  of  earning  a  living — 
by  working,  by  begging,  or  by  stealing — and  those  who  come  to  years  of 
responsibility  and  do  not  work  are  doing  one  of  the  other  two  things,  dress 
it  out  in  whatever  pretty  guise  you  please.  I  believe  it  was  Florence  Night- 
ingale who  said,  "  If  to  three  R's,  reading,  'riting,  and  'rithmetic,  there  be 
not  added  something  that  will  give  the  mind  a  practical  turn,  we  shall  soon 
have  a  fourth  R,  which  shall  stand  for  rascality."     *     *     * 

That  notable  man,  General  John  Eaton,  the  late  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  in  his  annual  report  made  this  significant  suggestion  : 


72  International  Council  of  Women. 

"The  experience  of  mob  violence  we  have  passed  through  should  suffice  to 
bring  us  to  the  conviction  that  our  safety  is  only  in  the  most  vigilant  use  of 
every  instrumentality  fitted  to  assure  the  thorough  training  of  every  child  in 
the  land,  not  only  in  virtue  and  intelligence,  but  also  in  the  pursuit  of  some 
useful  and  honorable  vocation."  Better,  far  better,  that  we  plant  kindergar- 
tens and  organize  industrial  schools  and  educate  the  young  for  work,  than  to 
let  them  grow  up  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  good  for  nothing  else  than  to 
form  Jacobin  clubs  and  revolutionary  brigades,  which  will  be  the  beginning 
of  the  end  of  our  greatness  and  prosperity,  and  of  the  Republic  itself.  We 
may  make  laws  and  constitutions  on  paper,  but  character  is  a  growth,  and  to 
all  growth  belongs  the  element  of  time.  We  must  call  the  little  children 
from  the  very  earliest  years  and  prepare  them  for  useful  and  honorable  citi-' 
zenship.  I  have  tried  to  outline  the  plan  ;  let  me  briefly  summarize  :  Take 
the  very  little  child  into  the  kindergarten  and  there  begin  the  work  of  phys- 
ical, mental,  and  moral  training ;  put  the  child  in  possession  of  his  powers  ; 
develop  his  faculties  ;  unfold  his  moral  nature ;  cultivate  mechanical  skill  in 
the  use  of  the  hands ;  give  him  a  sense  of  symmetry  and  harmony ;  a  quick 
judgment  of  number,  measure,  and  size;  stimulate  his  inventive  faculties; 
make  him  familiar  with  the  customs  and  usages  of  well-ordered  lives  ;  teach 
him  to  be  kind,  courteous,  helpful,  and  unselfish  ;  inspire  him  to  love  what- 
soever things  are  true  and  pure  and  right  and  kind  and  noble ;  and  thus 
equipped  physically,  mentally  and  morally,  send  him  forth  to  the  wider 
range  of  study,  which  should  include  within  its  scope  some  sort  of  industrial 
training — that  is,  the  putting  of  the  boy  or  girl  into  the  possession  of  the 
tools  for  technical  employment  or  for  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  of  drawing 
and  kindred  employments — and  still  further  on  the  boy  and  girl  should  have 
a  completed  trade.  Thus  they  will  be  prepared  to  solve  the  rugged  problem 
of  existence  by  earning  their  own  living  through  honest,  faithful  work. 
*     *     * 

Louisa  Reed  Stowell,  M.  S.,  F.  R.  M.  S.,  delegate  of  the 
Western  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae,  read  the  following 
paper : 

RETROSPECTION. 

Mrs.  Stowell.  The  annals  of  education  during  the  early  part  of  this 
century  furnish  us  with  the  story  of  a  girl  who  was  accustomed  to  sit  on  the 
steps  of  a  Boston  school-house  to  listen  to  the  boys'  recitations.  We  may 
regard  this  young  person  as  the  typical  woman  of  our  century,  and  the 
purpose  of  my  paper  will  be  an  effort  to  show  how  long  she  remained 
on  the  steps  and  what  direction  she  took  when  she  left    them.     *     *    * 

In  1854  one  woman,  speaking  for  many,  says:  "  We  claim  the  opportu- 
nity for  unfolding  our  powers  in  the  conditions  most  favorable  to  growth. 
We  demand  education  that  can  give  efficiency  to   the   intellect,  light  to  the 


Education.  73 

feelings,  and  dignity  to  the  whole  character."  From  the  tone  of  some  res- 
olutions adopted  at  an  educational  convention  in  New  York  it  would  seem 
that  such  expressions  were  becoming  frequent.  "  Woman's  education," 
said  the  gentlemen  in  convention,  "  being  intended  especially  to  prepare 
her  for  the  duties  of  wife  and  motherhood,  should  be  concrete  rather  than 
abstract.  It  should  be  for  use.  In  the  study  of  arithmetic,  for  instance,  the 
object  should  be  to  learn  its  practical  application  and  not  to  become  con- 
versant with  the  principles  of  numbers.  Culinary  matters  should  be  the 
basis,  and  ornamental  branches  the  finish  of  her  education." 

The  door  was  not  opened,  but,  evidently,  the  knocking  was  becoming 
somewhat  annoying  to  those  within  ;  nothing  easier  than  to  open  a  window 
and  advise  those  women  to  go  home  and  attend  to  cooking  I  Did  they  go? 
We  shall  see  !  We  have  another  voice  from  one  of  the  girls  on  the  steps  in 
the  same  year,  1854.  "  We  claim,"  she  says,  "  the  opportunity  of  pursu- 
ing the  same  course  of  study  provided  for  males,  and  that  this  shall  be  lim- 
ited only  by  inclination  or  capacity."  To  the  question,  "  Are  there  not 
now  ample  opportunities  for  this  extended  culture?"  she  replies  emphat- 
ically, "There  is  scarcely  a  single  seminary  in  the  land  that  pretends  to 
give  the  severe  discipline  of  the  male  schools.  Even  in  the  normal  schools 
a  lower  course  of  study  is  provided  for  women.  This  is  a  deep  and  burning 
disgrace!"  Two  years  later  Mrs.  Seager,  of  the  Genesee  Wesleyan  Sem- 
inary, asks,  "  Why  should  the  munificence  of  rulers  and  legislatures  be 
poured  out  for  the  ample,  the  profuse  endowment  of  institutions  for  the 
benefit  of  one  sex  from  the  privileges  of  which  the  other  is  excluded?"  At 
about  this  period  a  woman  in  Michigan,  through  the  medium  of  an 
educational  journal,  asks  that  her  State  should  endow  a  university  for 
women,  as  it  had  already  done  for  men. 

Following  speedily  upon  the  appeals  we  have  quoted  came  responses,  not 
at  first  from  institutions,  but  from  individual  men — men  who  are  an  honor 
to  manhood,  an  honor  to  humanity.  President  Fairchild,  of  Ohio;  Mat- 
thew Vassar  and  Henry  W.  Sage,  of  New  York ;  William  Ellery  Channing 
and  Mark  Hopkins,  of  Massachusetts,  and  President  James  B.  Angell,  of 
Michigan,  are  among  those  who,  at  an  early  date  and  while  the  cause  was 
still  an  unpopular  one,  responded  in  no  uncertain  tone.  "  That  women  are 
capable  of  the  highest  culture,"  said  the  gentleman  last  named,  "  the  gen- 
eration to  which  Mrs.  Somerville  and  Mrs.  Browning  belong  will  hardly 
deny.  All  must  admit  that  it  would  be  a  great  gain  if  we  could  secure  to 
every  young  woman  who  desires  it  an  education  as  thorough,  generous,  and 
stimulating  as  our  colleges  afford  to  young  men."  *  *  *  From  the  date 
last  named,  progress  was  sure  and  at  times  rapid.  Colleges  for  women  were 
rapidly  multiplied  in  the  East,  while  in  the  West  the  gains  of  co-education 
made  such  expedients  unnecessary. 

The  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  presents  some  statistics__at 
6 


74  International  Council  of  Women. 

this  point  that  for  brilliant  contrast  would  rejoice  the  heart  of  a  Macaulay. 
In  1870  there  were  33  schools  for  women  that  could  be  called  colleges;  in 
1875  there  were  202  ;  and  while  in  1855  there  were  not  one-half  dozen  of  the 
higher  schools  open  to  women,  to-day  there  are  not  one-half  dozen  worthy 
of  the  name  whose  doors  are  closed  to  them. 

Columbia  has  given  her  degree  to  Alice  Freeman  Palmer,  and  has,  at  a 
very  recent  date,  opened  her  doors  to  women  who  wish  to  do  post-graduate 
work.  Yale  gave  a  degree  to  a  woman  in  1885  ;  Johns  Hopkins  has  also  con- 
ferred a  degree  on  a  woman,  and  we  may  safely  conclude  that  whatever  reso- 
lutions may  be  formulated  nereafter,  these  cases  will  prove  precedents 
-dangerous  to  the  records  of  those  worthy  institutions.  Princeton  has  not 
yet  shown  a  similar  hospitality ;  but,  in  the  address  of  Dr.  Patton,  the 
■recently  appointed  president,  we  find  sentences  that  indicate  the  presence  of 
3evers  of  modern  thought,  and  we  are  too  well  acquainted  with  the 
-chemistry  of  that  ingredient  to  doubt  the  result.  "We  grow!"  says 
iDr.  Patton.  "  We  need  more  students.  There  are  fields  already  white 
tto  the  harvest,  and  Princeton  must  put  in  the  sickle  pretty  soon  or  be  con- 
tent to  be  a  gleaner  by  the  wayside."  And  again  he  says  :  "  There  are  some 
good  things  in  Paris,  in  Edinburgh,  in  Berlin;  but  the  typical  American 
university  will  not  be  a  simple  imitation  of  any  of  these." 

Probably  the  good  president  spoke  better  than  he  knew.  However  that 
may  be,  we  prophesy  that  Princeton  will  one  day  admit  that  the  genius  of 
the  American  college  is  not  in  sympathy  with  any  ruling  that  excludes  from 
the  halls  of  learning  any  person  or  class  of  persons  who  desire  their  advan- 
tages. Princeton  needs  more  students  !  Let  her  open  her  doors  to  women 
and  she  will  find  them.  The  fields  are  indeed  white  to  the  harvest,  and  we 
await  the  sickle. 

As  I  have  said,  in  1855  there  were  not  one-half  dozen  of  the  better  col- 
leges open  to  women.  To-day  the  graduates  of  the  higher  halls  of  learning 
are  numbered  by  thousands.  The  change  in  public  sentiment  is  not  less  pro- 
nounced and  encouraging.  I  quote  from  educational  literature  of  the  fifth 
and  eighth  decades  of  this  country  a  few  sentences  which  will  serve  as 
straws  to  show  the  changing  course  of  the  current. 

1850.  "  Culture  for  women  should  never  develop  into  learning.  Only  an 
unwomanly  woman  could  try  to  become  learned,  and  she  would  try  in  vain, 
as  she  has  not  the  mental  ability  of  a  man." 

1880.  "  The  admission  of  women  into  schools  heretofore  exclusively  open 
to  men  is  the  straw  on  the  moving  current  to  tell  us  what  is  coming.  It  is 
in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  that  women  shall  be  treated 
as  self-determining  beings."     *     *     * 

Of  the  many  collegiate  alumnae  who  are  in  happy  homes,  brightening  and 
purifying  our  social  life,  and  leading  the  way  to  a  most  enlightened  mother- 
hood, I  can  not  speak  further  than  to  congratulate  our  country  on  their  num- 


Education.  75 

berand  to  wish  it  much  larger  than  it  is.  *  *  *  If  I  were  to  state,  in  a 
word,  the  duty  of  our  time,  I  should  declare  it  to  be  an  unending  effort  to 
prove  the  beneficial  effects  of  the  higher  training  of  women  on  our  social 
and  national  life.     *     *     * 

Miss  Rena  A.  Michaels,  Ph.  D.,  Dean  of  the  Woman's  Col- 
lege, Northwestern  University,  then  spoke  on 

CO-EDUCATION. 

Dean  Michaels.  The  stable  arguments  of  the  anti-coeducationists  of 
twenty  years  ago  are  certainly  familiar  to  you  all.  They  told  us  that  the 
young  women  could  not  endure  the  strain  of  a  university  training,  and, 
therefore,  they  added  that  the  standard  of  the  university  curricula  would 
have  to  be  lowered  if  young  women  were  admitted.  In  those  days  they 
were  very  fond  of  hanging  above  our  heads  that  sword  of  Damocles — namely, 
that  young  women  who  were  co-educated  would  never  have  the  honor,  as 
Lucy  Stone  has  put  it,  of  being  even  a  relict  of  Mr.  Brown  or  Mr.  Jones. 
These  arguments  have  been  so  thoroughly  refuted  by  the  logic  of  facts 
that  we  never  hear  them  mentioned  in  these  days  unless,  indeed,  it  is  in  some 
of  Mrs.  Linton's  absurdities  or  by  some  Rip  Van  Winkle  reviewer,  who 
seems  for  the  last  fifteen  years  to  have  been  a  denizen  of  Sleepy  Hollow. 

I  doubt  not  that  there  are  many  of  my  hearers  who  have  read  Dr. 
Winchell's  excellent  book,  entitled  "Sketches  of  Creation."  You  re- 
member, in  the  closing  chapters  of  that  book,  he  has  described  what  may 
be  possibly  the  closing  scene  in  the  history  of  this  planet.  That  he  has 
taken  that  asserted  scientific  fact  that  the  earth  is  gradually  cooling  off,  and 
has  evolved  it  to  its  logical  conclusion.  He  has  drawn  a  very  vivid  picture 
of  that  possible  time  when  the  northern  and  southern  polar  belts  shall  have 
gradually  approached  each  other  until  there  is  left  only  that  little  line  of 
verdure  along  the  equator,  and  gradually  this,  too,  shall  be  covered  with  ice 
and  snow  ;  and  this  race  which  has  built  its  palaces,  its  temples,  and  its  domes 
shall  have  dwindled  down  to  a  solitary  aged  couple,  childless  and  alone,  the 
sad  remnant  of  that  race  that  had  its  beginning  in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

But  when  we  examine  the  statistics  of  the  anti-coeducationists,  we  see  that 
upon  no  such  touching  scene  will  the  march  of  progress  of  modern  history 
bring  us;  for  under  these  gradually  changing  social  conditions  that  day  must 
surely  come  when  this  race,  with  all  its  magnificent  possibilities  of  intellect 
and  handicraft;  this  race  that  has  built  its  Babylon,  its  Troy,  its  Athens,  its 
Rome,  its  Paris  and  its  Washington ;  this  race  that  has  had  its  Moses,  its  David, 
its  St.  Paul,  its  Homer,  its  Virgil,  its  Dante,  its  Shakespeare  and  its  Brown- 
ing; this  race  that  has  had  its  Solomon,  its  Darius,  its  Caesar,  its  Charle- 
magne, its  Napoleon,  its  Gladstone;  this  race, with  all  its  magnificent  possi- 
bilities, I  say,  shall  in  the  end  have  dwindled  down  to  a  solitary  old  maid 
standing  on  the  equator,  friendless  and  alone,  with  no  loving  hand  to  write 
her  epitaph,  "  Died  of  eating  forbidden  fruit." 


76  International  Council  of  Women. 

We  are  met  in  these  days  by  very  many  objectors  to  co-education,  thought- 
ful men  and  women  who  have  no  fear  for  the  moral  effects  of  co-education, 
and  have  only  praise  for  its  intellectual  results;  but  they  come  to  us  with 
this  earnest  question  :  "What  is  to  be  the  effect  upon  home  life?  Are  our 
girls  to  become  masculine?"  St.  Beuve  said  that  in  three-fourths  of  men 
there  is  a  poet,  who  sometimes  dies  young  ;  and  in  my  relations  with  young 
women  1  am  convinced  that  in  every  girl  there  is  a  mother,  and  that,  whether 
ever  appearing  in  the  actual  state  of  motherhood  or  not,  the  girl  or  the 
woman  is  always  exercising  that  universal  instinct  of  motherhood  within  her. 

You  will  pardon  me  if  I  draw  the  illustration  of  my  thought  from  the 
institution  with  which  I  have  the  honor  to  be  connected.  I  am  sure  it  is 
equally  true  at  Ann  Arbor  or  at  Cornell  as  at  Evanston.  As  I  go  daily  into 
the  rooms  of  my  young  women  I  am  convinced  that  no  amount  of  Greek  or 
philosophy  or  mathematics  will  ever  eradicate  from  the  soul  of  the  girl  the 
home  instinct.  If  I  go  into  the  room  of  the  young  man,  I  find  it  is  the 
place  where  he  keeps  his  books,  where  he  studies,  where  he  sleeps ;  it  is  his 
mental  workshop;  his  life  is  sought  elsewhere ;  his  pleasures  are  found  else- 
where. But  when  I  go  into  the  room  of  my  young  woman,  I  find  dainty  cur- 
tains, pictures,  needlework,  books  of  poetry  and  art,  and  the  geranium  and 
pet  canary  in  the  window;  not  a  workshop,  but  a  home  where  the  young 
woman  naturally  lives  out  the  instinct  of  her  mother-heart — that  instinct  which 
leads  her  to  want  something  that  is  dependent  on  her  for  love  and  care. 

We  hear  a  great  many  philippics  in  these  days  about  the  influence  of  books 
upon  women  ;  but  the  fact  is  that  an  all-wise  Creator  has  so  implanted  the 
instinct  of  wife-love  and  mother-love  in  the  soul  of  woman  that  no  educa- 
tion nor  co-education — no,  nor  the  ballot-box  itself — will  ever  be  able  to  eradi- 
cate it.  I  care  not  how  long  a  young  woman's  soul  may  have  pulsated  to  the 
rhythm  of  the  Homeric  meters;  I  care  not,  indeed,  how  long  she  may  have 
been  under  the  alluring  charms  of  conic  sections;  when  all  is  tried  and  all 
is  done  and  all  is  counted,  all  great  arts  and  all  great  philosophies,  just  let 
the  man  appear  whom  her  soul  recognizes,  and  straightway  love  puts  its  hand 
out  and  outreaches  all  things.  I  have  noticed  that  educated  women  make 
just  as  many  blunders  in  the  choice  of  their  husbands  as  do  educated  men  in 
the  choice  of  their  wives. 

You  see  in  the  papers  that  the  West  is  co-educational,  and  I  want  to  make 
it  emphatic.  You  doubtless  have  seen  also  the  statement  that  a  certain  col- 
lege in  the  West  has  lately  excluded  young  women.  I  think  the  name  of 
that  college  is  Adelbert.  We  never  knew  of  it  until  they  excluded  young 
women,  and  we  thought  at  the  time  it  was  a  very  shrewd  advertising  dodge. 
But  since  I  have  come  to  Washington  and  met  one  of  the  good  ladies  of  Cleve- 
land, I  have  been  let  into  the  secret.  She  tells  me  that  the  young  women 
took  all  the  salutatories  and  valedictories,  and,  moreover,  that  the  college  had 
recently  elected  a  president  who  had  been  dead  fifty  years,  although  unfor- 


Education.  77 

tunately  not  buried.  I  understand  that  Adelbert  is  talking  about  an  annex. 
I  want  to  say  here  to-night,  and  I  can  say  it  with  grace,  because  I  am  an 
Eastern  woman,  that  those  bright,  enthusiastic,  large-brained  and  big-hearted 
young  women  of  the  West,  those  young  women  who  have  in  their  eyes  the 
distant  horizons  of  their  prairie  homes,  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  annexes. 
Michigan  University  has  taught  them  too  good  a  lesson  in  the  other  direc- 
tion. In  the  Mississippi  Valley  there  is  growing  up  another  society — a  soci- 
ety that  will  have  a  new  type  of  manhood  and  of  womanhood,  because  it  is 
co  educational.  Young  men  and  women  are  learning  to  have  a  mutual  respect 
for  each  other  intellectually  and  morally.  It  was  in  the  West,  among  the 
Wisconsin  hills,  that  that  girl  was  born,  who,  as  the  woman  Frances  Willard, 
the  woman  and  the  philanthropist,  is  loved  and  revered  by  all  the  young 
women  of  America  for  her  vestal  purity.  My  girls  call  her  "  St.  Frances." 
She  is  the  woman  whose  genius  and  deep-veined  humanity  and  inspiring 
words  of  sympathy  have  touched  and  united  the  men  and  women  of  two 
continents.  Such  is  the  type  of  womanhood  that  is  being  developed  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  and  it  is  the  type  of  which  the  poets  dream. 

Cora  A.  Benneson,  A.  M.,  L.  L.  B.,  Michigan  University  ; 
Fellow  in  History,  Bryn  Mawr  College,  Pennsylvania,  was  the 
next  speaker. 

COLLEGE  FELLOWSHIPS  FOR  WOMEN. 

Miss  Benneson.  I  beg  to  call  your  attention  to  the  benefits  of  a  move- 
ment quite  new  in  the  history  of  higher  education — the  founding  of  college 
fellowships  for  women.  And,  lest  there  should  be  any  misapprehension,  let 
me  ask  you,  in  the  beginning,  not  to  confound  fellowships  with  scholar- 
ships. 

Scholarships  are  commonly  aids  granted  to  undergraduates  to  enable  them 
to  complete  a  college  course  when  they  have  p3cuniary  need  of  such  assist- 
ance, or  they  are  sometimes  given,  as  at  Cornell  University,  to  those  candi- 
dates for  admission  who  pass  the  best  examinations,  ability  alone  being  con- 
sidered.    Most  of  our  colleges  offer  scholarships. 

Fellowships,  on  the  other  hand,  are  honors  conferred  on  graduates  who 
have  shown  special  proficiency  in  some  subject,  to  give  them  opportunity  for 
advanced  study  of  a  high  character.  The  holder  of  a  fellowship  is  expected 
to  reside  at  the  college  and  to  continue  her  work  in  the  main  independently, 
but  may  have  the  supervision  and  assistance  of  professors,  the  use  of  libraries 
and  apparatus.  Besides  free  residence  and  tuition,  an  amount  is  usually 
granted  her,  about  equal  to  the  expenses  of  a  college  year. 

The  advantages  of  fellowship  are  twofold:  first,  to  the  college;  second, 
to  the  holder  of  the  fellowship. 

The  scholarship  and  culture  of  the  college  are  promoted  by  the  presence 
of  a  number  of  students  of  advanced  standing,  pursuing  special  researches 


78  International  Council  of  Women. 

with  enthusiasm.  A  beneficial  influence  is  exerted  upon  the  entire  life  of 
the  institution.  The  Fellows  are  naturally  leaders  in  the  debating  societies, 
the  literary  and  scientific  organizations.  The  under-graduates  are  aided  by 
observing  the  aims  and  methods  of  students  of  longer  experience.  The  fel- 
lowships bridge  over,  in  a  measure,  that  unfortunate  gulf  which  often  lies 
between  the  faculty  and  the  great  body  of  the  students.  Occupying  an 
intermediate  position  between  the  two,  the  FeHows,  if  they  will,  may  fre- 
quently render  substantial  assistance  to  the  under-graduates,  whose  difficul- 
ties they  understand  because  they  have  so  recently  been  in  the  same  posi- 
tion themselves,  while  it  may  perhaps  be  helpful  for  professors,  at  times,  to 
know  from  those  more  constantly  associated  with  the  students  than  it  is  pos- 
sible for  them  to  be,  how  far  their  methods  are  meeting  the  needs  of  their 
classes. 

To  the  holder  of  a  fellowship,  its  value  will  depend  upon  her  personal 
ability.  At  the  least,  it  is  an  opportunity  to  test  her  power.  If  she  have 
natural  fitness  for  her  work  and  habits  of  industry,  she  may  obtain  a  grasp 
of  her  subject  which  will  lead  to  exceptional  usefulness.  If  the  fellowship 
fall  to  one  of  rare  talent,  she  may  be  enabled  thereby  to  add  directly  to  the 
sum  of  the  world's  knowledge. 

The  spheres  of  human  thought  have  now  so  widened  that,  in  order  to 
render  any  important  service  in  the  way  of  original  work,  it  is  necessary  to 
become  a  specialist.  A  fellowship  offers  the  best  conditions  for  this.  The 
student  is  relieved  from  care  as  to  material  wants.  She  has  at  her  command 
libraries,  laboratories,  and  all  of  the  college  appliances  for  research  and 
experiment,  with  a  previous  training  which  teaches  her  how  to  use  these, 
and  she  has  her  time  free  from  interruption.  Only  those  can  appreciate  the 
full  value  of  such  aids  who  have  tried  to  pursue  investigations  far  from  any 
good  library  or  center  of  learning,  or  amid  pressing  social  claims. 

The  usual  curriculum  of  a  college  covers  so  w  ide  a  variety  of  topics  that, 
even  under  the  elective  system,  it  offers  little  opportunity  for  specializing  ; 
nor  is  it  well  to  specialize  until  the  foundations  of  a  liberal  education  are  laid. 
But  a  fellowship  comes  as  a  supplement  to  a  college  course,  after  the  tastes 
are  clearly  defined,  and  then  the  attention  may  be  directed  to  one  subject 
with  hope  of  mastering  it,  and  without  great  danger  of  narrowness. 

The  system  of  fellowships  was  introduced  into  this  country  from  Great 
Britain,  but,  like  most  of  the  institutions  we  have  borrowed  from  her,  has 
been  variously  modified  to  suit  American  ideas.  For  a  long  time  the  older 
colleges  of  our  country  have  offered  such  honors  to  men.  Harvard  has 
13  fellowships;  Yale,  3;  Columbia,  7;  Princeton,  7;  Washington  and  Lee 
University,  1;  Pennsylvania  University,  1.  These  have  been  restricted, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  to  their  own  graduates.  To  develop  the  system  on  a 
broader  plan  and  to  make  it  a  most  conspicuous  success  was  reserved  for 
Johns  Hopkins  University.     It  opened  its  twenty  fellowships  to  graduates 


Education.  79 

B    £| 
from  any  college,  and,  as  a  consequence,  has  drawn  to  itself  from  the  best 

talent  of  all.     To-day,  when  a  professor's  chair  is  vacant,  his  successor  is 

quite  apt  to  be  sought  among  the  fellows  of  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

Similar  results  are  to  be  hoped  from   the  founding  of  college  fellowships 

for  women.     Not  only  will   they  offer  opportunity  for  excellence  in   the 

chosen  specialties,  but  institutions  will  know  where  to  look  when  they  wish 

professors   or   teachers  in    those  subjects.      To-day,   even   in    the   colleges 

exclusively  for  women,  with   the  exception  of  Wellesley,  there  is  a  much 

larger  number  of  men  than  women  in  the  faculties,  while  few  of"  our  leading 

co-educational  institutions  have  yet    recognized   the  attainments  of  their 

women  by  appointments  to  professorships. 

At  present  the  fellowships  open  to  women  are  8  at  Cornell  University,  6 
at  Bryn  Mawr  College,  i  at  Wesleyan  University.  The  eight  fellowships  at 
Cornell  are  conferred  upon  men  and  women  on  equal  terms,  while  a  portion 
of  the  Sage  fund,  amounting  to  $50,000,  has  been  set  apart  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  scholarships  and  fellowships  for  women  exclusively.  The 
appointments  are  for  one  year,  or,  in  cases  of  exceptional  merit,  for  two 
years. 

Of  the  six  fellowships  at  Bryn  Mawr  five  are  open  to  graduates  of  any  col- 
lege of  good  standing,  and,  "  generally  speaking,  are  given  to  the  candidate 
who  has  studied  the  longest  or  whose  work  affords  the  best  promise  of  future 
success."  (See  Byrn  Mawr  College  programme.)  They  are  awarded  in  the 
subjects  of  Biology,  History,  Mathematics,  Greek  and  English.  One,  the  Eu- 
ropean fellowship,  is  restricted  to  Byrn  Mawr  graduates,  is  unlimited  as  to 
subject,  and  entitles  to  a  year's  study  at  some  foreign  university.  Thus  far 
the  Bryn  Mawr  fellowships  have  been  held  by  twelve  persons.  Of  these, 
beside  the  five  still  at  the  college,  one  is  associate  professor  of  history  at 
Vassar,  a  second  has  a  responsible  place  in  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Agriculture 
in  this  city,  a  third  holds  a  college  position  in  Greek,  two  are  continuing 
their  studies,  the  one  in  Nova  Scotia,  the  other  at  the  University  of  Zurich, 
two  are  teaching  in  normal  schools. 

The  fellowship  of  Wesleyan  University  is  awarded  to  that  member  of  its 
senior  class  who  shall  pass  the  best  examination  in  Greek. 

The  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  offers  five  graduate  scholar- 
ships which  are  in  effect  fellowships. 

Although  Johns  Hopkins  University  does  not  commonly  open  its  doors 
to  women,  it  has  done  so  on  one  occasion.  Mrs.  Christine  Ladd  Franklin 
was  invited  by  the  trustees  for  three  years  (1 879-1 882)  to  continue  her  stud- 
ies at  the  university,  and  was  granted  the  regular  stipendium  of  a  Fellow. 
Her  specialty  is  mathematics. 

The  alumnae  of  Michigan  University  are  raising  a  fund  to  establish  one  or 
more  fellowships  of  $8,000,  which  will  afford  each  an  annual  income  of 
$400. 


80  International  Council  of  Women. 

A  fellowship  at  Michigan  University  is  now  offered  by  the  Western  Asso- 
ciation of  Collegiate  Alumnae  to  that  one  of  its  members  who  shall  present 
the  most  satisfactory  thesis  before  June  15,  1888,  the  decision  to  be  referred 
to  a  joint  committee  of  the  members  of  the  faculty  and  of  the  association. 
This  fellowship  is  not  restricted  to  a  year,  but  is  subject  to  the  faculty's  ap- 
proval of  work  done,  an  arrangement  which  seems  preferable  to  the  one- 
year  system,  since  that  hardly  gives  time  for  extended  investigation,  and 
under  the  limitation,  work  well  begun  may  be  dropped  for  lack  of  opportu- 
nity to  complete  it. 

In  Great  Britain  fellowships  have  often  been  conferred  for  life,  but  now  a 
custom  of  limiting  them  to  six  years  is  gaining  favor.  The  benefits  which 
have  resulted  to  the  literary  and  scientific  world  from  English  fellowships  will 
be  apparent  if  one  will  glance  at  the  title-pages  in  any  well-selected  library  and 
notice  how  often  we  are  indebted  for  the  most  fruitful  investigations  of  special 
subjects  to  the  holders  of  fellowships. 

At  Newnham  College,  Cambridge,  England,  there  is  already  one  fellow- 
ship tor  women  (called,  however,  a  studentship),  while  another  is  about  to 
be  endowed. 

There  seems,  indeed,  no  way  at  present,  in  which  the  higher  education  of 
women  can  be  advanced  so  effectively"  as  by  the  founding  of  fellowships 
for  them  in  our  colleges  where  none  now  exist,  and  in  adding  to  their  num- 
ber where  they  have  already  been  established. 

Martha  McLellan  Brown,  Vice-President  Wesleyan  Female 
College,  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  was  then  presented  to  the  audience. 

INSTITUTIVE   POWER. 

Mrs.  Brown.  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  the  oldest  chartered  college  for 
women,  the  Cincinnati  Wesleyan  Female  College.  Half  a  century  ago  its 
founders,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  honored  and  beloved  Mrs.  Mary  Wilber, 
led  the  battle  and  won  the  victory  for  woman's  higher  education.  This  grand 
pioneer  of  woman's  scholastic  education,  in  founding  the  Wesleyan  College 
was  just  four  years  in  advance  of  the  honored  organization  which  called  this 
eminent  Council.  That  grand  old  institution  has  given  her  noble  degrees  to 
about  six  hundred  and  fifty  graduates,  many  of  whom  occupy  the  highest 
places  of  usefulness  and  culture  in  the  Christian  world  to-day,  and  one  of 
whom  the  citizens  of  Washington  were  delighted  to  honor  in  the  person  of 
Mrs.  Hayes,  wife  of  ex-President  Hayes. 

Simultaneous  with  the  progress  of  this  great  experiment  have  been  the  steps 
of  woman's  advancement.  It  will  be  our  province  in  this  paper  to  examine 
the  secret  springs  of  this  progressive  power.  Institutive  power  may  be  defined 
as  that  force  which  makes  for  the  development,  amelioration,  and  protection 
of  mankind.  Statesmen  may  think  of  it  as  political  force.  Ecclesiastics 
may  think  of  it  as  religious  force,  and  some  philosophers  may  regard  it  sim- 
ply as  instinct.     *     *     * 


Education.  81 

Practically,  all  institutions  represent  some  sentiment  or  principle  of  their 
founders.  Usually  they  also  represent  a  self-sacrificing  activity  for  some 
movement  of  greater  or  less  importance  to  the  general  public.  Whether 
old  or  new,  they  are  the  movements  of  great  personality  in  their  founders. 
*  *  *  As  the  public,  free  institutions  of  our  country  represent  the  independ- 
ent, free  personality  of  our  fore-parents  of  the  Revolution,  so  all  reforms 
establish  some  eleemosynary  institutions  of  permanent  philanthropy.  *•*  * 
Now,  it  is  not  a  question  in  empirical  sequences  whether  this  strength  of 
character  is  greater  in  men  or  in  women.  The  main  point  under  review  is 
this,  that  the  development  of  the  ethical  personality  of  women,  secured  by 
their  higher  education  during  the  last  half-century,  has  given  impetus  to  the 
march  of  progress  in  this  country  unparalleled  in  history.  All  the  instincts 
and  aspirations  of  cultured  women  hold  them  tenaciously  to  the  sacred 
obligations  of  unimpeachable  right.  *  *  *  By  virtue  of  their  prime  ministry 
over  all  social  interests,  the  world  expects  them  to  stand  in  the  unequal  battle 
of  life  with  greater  independence  than  men.  And  they  meet  the  world's 
expectations  ;  they  stand  nobly,  royally,  at  the  nation's  stadium  for  the  high- 
est good  without  money-earning  stimulus,  without  emoluments,  without  per- 
quisites, and  they  are,  therefore,  more  frequently  institutive  factors  in  the 
reforms  of  the  civilized  world.  *  *  *  Great  numbers  of  educated  American 
women  stand  committed  to  such  reforms  as  may  not  only  abate  the  evils  and 
wrongs  of  society,  but  elevate  the  people  to  a  sense  of  public  responsibility 
or  rectitude.  *  *  *  They  stand  heroically  demanding  justice,  morality,  free- 
dom, and  character.  They  seek  to  elevate  the  free  personality  of  the  people. 
For  liberty  is  the  compass  of  responsibility.  *  *  * 

All  actual  development  proceeds  through  the  individual  to  general  forms  of 
culture,  as  educational,  political,  social,  religious.  *  *  *  The  institutive 
principle  in  this  higher  culture  which  reaches  out  for  new  fields  of  activity,  the 
institutive  feelings  which  seek  the  broken  foundations  of  human  society  every- 
where for  repair  and  improvement,  are  the  very  foundation  principles  of 
republican  government ;  and,  once  organized  in  progressive  institutions, 
they  mount  and  climb  and  aspire  infinitely  ;  hence  the  rapid  progress  of 
society.  As  yet  only  the  masculine  portion  of  this  activity  is  organized  pol- 
itically. The  more  extensive  portion  is  not  conserved  in  the  progressive 
aims  of  political  science.  All  estimates  of  possible  attainments  leave  out 
woman's  institutive  force  except  by  co-operative  influence.  All  questions 
seek  solution  without  reference  to  this  institutive  power  ;  hence  many  prob- 
lems evade  solution  without  this  generic  factor,  and  some  great  movements 
limp  and  stagger  through  abnormal  existence. 

Humanity  is  not  a  mass  of  matter  acted  upon  as  such  by  the  cosmic  forces 
of  gravity,  momentum,  or  electricity.  It  mounts  by  a  higher  impelling  power 
than  all  these  physical  forces.  When  the  pendulum  of  human  thought  sweeps 
the  whole  range  of  transitions  from  the  organic  force,  challenging  the  crystal 


82  International  Council  of  Women. 

to  yield  its  dead  properties  to  feed  the  living  organism,  up  the  scale  of  forces 
to  the  divine  conception  of  spiritual  life  in  mortal  man,  reflecting  the  image 
of  the  Eternal,  this  thought  sweeps  along  the  path  of  a  law  which  would 
unlock  all  the  problems  between — a  law  of  superorganic  force,  operative  in 
the  souls  of  mankind  for  progress  upward,  above  the  last  analysis  of  sensation. 
Not  like  pulses  beating  in  upon  consciousness  from  an  upper  and  outer 
world — a  lex  ex  machina.  Rather  it  is  a  throbbing  force  within  the  con- 
sciousness— absolute  per  se,  free,  independent  and  vital  by  virtue  of  the 
creative  energy  which  breathed  it  into  the  dead  form  of  humanity.  Matter 
is  inert.  Whenever  matter  is  moved  from  a  center  there  is  life.  This  force 
at  the  center  of  human  consciousness  is  more  than  energy.  It  is  unique. 
Its  command  of  the  periphery  is  absolute.  It  knows  no  sex.  It  acknowl- 
edges no  individual  ambitions,  nor  even  the  gravity  of  social  organisms  that 
are  destructive.  It  epitomizes  the  world  of  matter  and  the  world  of  mind. 
Clearing  the  environments  for  the  psychic  lenses  which  may  add  new  stars  to 
the  old  "pathway  of  the  gods" — new  divinity  in  human  form,  new  Christ- 
liness  in  human  character — still  it  mounts. 

Thus  closed  the  able  discussion  on  the  various  questions  of 
education.  To  test  the  feelings  of  the  audience,  a  resolution 
was  offered  and  unanimously  passed,  in  favor  of  opening  all 
the  colleges  and  universities  of  the  country  freely  to  the 
daughters  of  the  State. 

Many  who  had  not  given  much  thought  to  the  subject  were 
surprised  to  learn  that  so  prolonged  a  struggle  had  been  made 
by  women  themselves  to  secure  a  foothold,  even  in  those  insti- 
tutions endowed  by  the  State,  which  women,  as  well  as  men, 
are  taxed  to  support. 

The  facts  presented  on  this  topic  roused  many  to  new 
thought  and  stirred  all  to  fresh  indignation  against  the  injustice 
that  compels  one-half  the  race  to  a  hard  struggle  for  those 
rights  freely  accorded  the  other.  With  the  passing  of  the  res- 
olution, the  interesting  sessions  of  the  first  day  ended. 


TUESDAY,    MARCH    27,    1888. 

MORNING  SESSION. 
PHILANTHROPIES. 

Harriette  R.  Shattuck,  President  of  the  National  Woman 
Suffrage  Association  for  Massachusetts,  presided.  Invocation 
by  Zerelda  G.  Wallace. 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  Before  we  join  in  singing  the  sixteenth  song  I  will  ask 
its  author,  who  is  with  us  to-day,  to  read  it.  Let  me  introduce  Mrs.  Harriet 
H.  Robinson,  of  Massachusetts,  who,  although  not  a  pioneer  in  the  move- 
ment, is  one  of  the  older  workers. 

Mrs.  Robinson  read  the  stirring  original  song,  "  Hark  the 
Sound  of  Myriad  Voices,"  in  the  singing  of  which  the  audi- 
ence joined  heartily. 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  The  subject  for  us  to  consider  this  morning  is  philan- 
thropy. Philanthropy — what  is  it?  We  have  become  so  familiar  with  the 
word  that  we  are  apt  to  forget  that  it  is  a  comparatively  new  one.  In  olden 
times  there  was  no  such  word,  because  there  was  no  such  thing  as  philan- 
thropy, for  words  represent  and  express  ideas  and  are  coined  to  meet  the 
need  which  the  existence  of  a  new  idea  brings  to  the  world.  The  nearest 
approach  to  philanthropy  in  ante-Christian  days  was  the  friendship  of  the 
Greeks;  and  friendship  is  a  love  between  individuals,  while  philanthropy  is 
the  love  of  the  race — the  stooping  of  the  higher  ddwn  to  the  lower  and  the 
helping  that  lower  to  arise — the  stretching  out  of  the  hand  and  opening  of 
the  heart  to  all  less  fortunate  than  ourselves. 

As  you  know,  the  word  comes  from  two  Greek  words  meaning  li  to  love  " 
and  "  man,"  and  expresses  the  love  of  man  or  of  humanity ;  that  brotherly 
love  or  "  charity  "  of  the  Bible,  which  is  greater  than  even  hope  or  faith ; 
that  love  which  Christ  came  to  make  manifest,  and  which  we,  by  following 
his  example,  shall  manifest  also. 

It  is  quite  appropriate,  therefore,  that  the  first  speaker  this  morning 
should  represent  an  organization  of  women  which  has  grown  out  of  the  need 
for  woman's  active  work  in  the  church.  I  have  the  honor  of  introducing  to 
you  Mrs.  Isabel  C.  Barrows,  delegate  of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  Conference 
of  the  Unitarian  Association. 

what  unitarian  women  are  doing. 

Mrs.  Barrows.  In  preparing  this  outline  of  the  missionary  work  of  Uni- 
tarian women  my  eye  chanced  to  fall  upon  a  newspaper  clipping  which  had 


84  International  Council  of  Women. 

been  sent  me  by  a  friend.  It  is  dated  September,  1836,  and  announces  a 
fair  for  the  sale  of  fancy  and  useful  articles  for  the  purpose  of  "raising 
money  to  support  a  missionary  to  the  West."  The  four  ladies  who  sign  it 
were  members  of  a  Unitarian  society  in  Massachusetts,  which  from  that  day 
to  this  has  never  failed  to  raise  its  annual  contribution  for  missionary  work. 
But  the  special  point  of  interest  in  this  advertisement  is  that  over  fifty  years 
ago  women  felt  the  duty  laid  upon  them  of  raising  money  for  philanthropic 
purposes,  and  that  the  way  in  which  they  did  it  was  by  the  "  fair."  As  a 
step  toward  dispensing  with  such  a  laborious  way  of  winning  money  it  is 
necessary  to  educate  the  consciences  of  men  and  women  to  the  duty  of 
giving  to  worthy  philanthropic  and  religious  objects  systematically  and  gen- 
erously. One  of  the  purposes  of  the  society  which  I  am  commissioned  to 
represent  at  this  Council  is  this  broader  education. 

If  we  look  over  the  annals  of  the  Unitarian  Church  we  find  many  women 
whose  entire  lives  have  been  given  to  works  of  benevolence  and  charity. 
Prior  to  anti-slavery  times  there  was  no  one  special  thing  that  brought  such 
women  to  the  front  from  the  quiet  of  their  homes  and  parishes,  though  the 
mighty  influence  which  they  there  exercised  may  not  be  measured.  But 
when  the  tide  of  feeling  rose  high  against  the  sufferings  of  the  slave,  and  later, 
when  the  war  made  such  demands  on  human  sympathy,  the  nobleness  ot  the 
women  of  all  denominations  was  aroused,  and  among  those  doing  their  full 
share  toward  the  amelioration  of  suffering  it  is  certainly  just  to  count  the 
women  of  the  Unitarian  fold.  See,  again,  the  list  of  friendly  visitors  asso- 
ciated in  carrying  out  that  wise  method  of  dealing  with  the  poorer  classes 
of  our  communities,  known  as  the  Organized  Charities,  and  you  will  find 
no  mean  sprinkling  of  names  of  women  from  Unitarian  households. 

But  happily  in  these  various  branches  of  work  all  sects  may  and  should 
unite.  To  wisely  educate  the  deaf  or  blind  child,  to  generously  and 
judiciously  administer  relief  to  the  needy,  to  gather  together  the  feeble- 
minded and  develop  the  spark  of  intelligence  which  would  die  if  left  in  its 
natural  surroundings,  to  rescue  young  girls  from  temptation  and  place  them 
in  comfortable  homes — these  require  no  subscription  to  any  creed,  save  the 
all-inclusive  one  of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  ;  they  need  occasion  no 
sectarian  rivalry,  save  as  each  should  strive  to  be  foremost  in  good  works. 

Apart  from  all  this,  however,  many  women  with  fidelity  to  their  religious 
convictions  feel  the  need  of  something  which  shall  help  to  spread  the  special 
faith  which  they  believe  best  suited  to  redeem  the  world.  It  was  in  accord- 
ance with  this  desire  that  the  various  women's  boards  of  missions  sprang  into 
existence  a  few  years  ago.  Among  others,  the  women  of  the  Unitarian  house- 
hold of  faith  felt  this  impulse,  and  in  1880  they  made  a  modest  attempt  to 
follow  the  excellent  example  set  by  their  sisters  of  the  orthodox  churches. 

In  1825  the  American  Unitarian  Association  was  organized  chiefly  for  the 
purpose  of  printing  and  disseminating  liberal   literature,   but  also   for  the 


Philanthropies.  85 

building  up  of  new  or  struggling  churches  and  supporting  home  missionaries. 
Though  made  up  of  a  membership  of  both  men  and  women,  it  was  wholly 
officered  by  men.  At  last  one  or  two  women  were  rather  reluctantly  admitted 
to  the  board,  but  the  masculine  element  was  so  predominant  that  the  feminine 
influence  was  hardly  felt.  There  were  many  wom^n,  however,  who  believed 
that  the  denomination  was  losing  much  power  by  this  practically  one-sided 
arrangement,  and  they  determined  to  organize  an  auxiliary  society,  one 
whose  main  object  should  be  to  develop  the  religious  life  in  the  individual 
members,  thus  quickening  the  conscience  into  such  vigorous  life  that  the 
secondary  object,  that  of  raising  money,  should  be  made  easier,  because 
people  readily  give  for  that  in  which  they  heartily  believe.  Our  conference 
was  therefore  organized  to  stand  beside  the  American  Unitarian  Association. 
Hence  our  name,  "  The  Women's  Auxiliary  Conference." 

Our  permanent  organization  was  effected  at  the  Saratoga  National  Confer- 
ence, in  September,  1880,  with  Miss  Abby  W.  May  as  president,  and  a  director 
for  every  State  in  which  the  Unitarian  churches  existed.  The  avowed  objects 
as  presented  to  the  women  were  to  enlist  the  sympathies  and  energies  of 
Unitarian  women  in  the  growth  of  the  liberal  faith;  to  strengthen  and  in- 
crease the  religious  life  among  the  members  themselves;  to  bring  them  into 
more  friendly  relation  with  each  other,  and  especially  with  those  of  the  same 
faith,  in  struggling  societies  wherever  they  might  be  ;  to  awaken  an  interest 
in  missionary  work,  and  in  the  circulation  of  liberal  literature,  and,  lastly, 
to  raise  money  for  the  general  objects  recommended  by  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Unitarian  Churches. 

Branch  conferences,  closely  united  with  the  parent  society,  and  paying 
their  membership  fees  into  its  treasury,  have  been  formed  in  a  large  number 
of  parishes.  In  these  branches  there  are  classes  of  religious  study  and  dis- 
cussion made  up  entirely  of  women. 

Our  branches  now  reach  from  Maine  to  California,  and  from  the  North  to 
the  Sunny  South,  wherever  we  have  Unitarian  churches,  though  there  is  a 
sister  organization  comprising  the  central  Western  States,  known  as  '•'  The 
Women's  Western  Unitarian  Conference,"  that  shares  the  national  field 
with  us.  If  we  were  asked  to  point  out  the  most  distinctive  feature  of  our 
undertakings  we  should  unhesitatingly  say  that  the  "  Post-office  Mission  "  is 
the  most  unique  and  perhaps  the  most  effective  thing  connected  with  the 
Conference.  It  occupies  a  large  share  of  the  efforts  and  strength  of  our 
Conference  and  yearly  tens  of  thousands  of  tracts,  pamphlets,  sermons,  and 
papers  are  distributed  over  the  whole  country.  The  method  has  this  advan- 
tage over  the  system  followed  by  the  older  churches,  that  reading  matter  is 
sent  only  to  those  who  take  the  trouble  to  ask  for  it  and  pay  for  its  trans- 
mission. 

In  supporting  missionaries,  in  helping  to  house  new  societies,  and  in  all 
work  of  that  kind  the  Conference  has  done  its  fair  share,  and  is  doing  more 


86  International  Council  of  Women. 

each  \ear  as  its  coffers  are  better  filled.  Of  foreign  missionary  work,  that 
which  chiefly  absorbs  the  money  and  strength  of  other  women's  missionary 
boards,  we  have  attempted  nothing,  though  a  few  of  the  branches  in  the 
West  and  many  individual  Unitarians  in  the  East  are  greatly  interested  in 
the  Ramabai  circles,  and  are  contributing  in  an  unsectarian  way  toward  the 
success  of  this  latest  effort  in  behalf  of  Hindoo  women. 

A  new  work  undertaken  by  the  Unitarian  Church  has  been  largely  left  for 
the  women,  to  carry  on,  and  it  enlists  their  hearty  co-operation — the  estab- 
lishment and  support  of  an  industrial  school  among  the  Crow  Indians  of 
Montana. 

Another  thing  to  which  our  Conference  is  pledged  is  the  assistance  of 
women  who  wish  to  enter  the  ministry  and  who  need  sympathy  and  per- 
haps material  aid.  The  Harvard  University  Divinity  School  is  closed  to 
women,  but  the  Meadville  Theological  School  throws  open  its  doors  and 
welcomes  them  to  all  the  advantages  which  are  offered  to  men,  save  the 
scholarships,  the  word  "student"  in  the  question  of  distributing  funds  being 
interpreted  to  mean  male  students.  Here  several  women  have  studied  and 
are  now  studying.  Our  Conference  gladly  gives  the  weight  of  its  influence 
and  such  contributions  of  money  as  may  be  necessary  to  enable  as  many 
as  possible  to  become  preachers  and  pastors.  Their  message  has  been 
gladly  received,  especially  in  the  West,  where  in  some  parishes  children 
growing  up  under  the  devoted  ministry  of  consecrated  women  are  so 
accustomed  to  their  voices  that  last  summer,  when  one  of  them  exchanged 
with  a  clergyman,  a  little  fellow  on  going  home  told  his  mother,  in  great 
astonishment,  that  "  a  man  preached  in  the  church."  He  had  never  heard  one 
before.     The  good  tidings  are  as  welcome  from  a  woman's  lips  as  man's. 

There  has  always  been  the  most  cordial  sympathy  between  the  officers  of 
the  American  Unitarian  Association  and  the  Auxiliary  Conference,  and  if 
the  time  were  ever  to  come  when  the  board  of  the  older  organization  were 
to  have  a  fair  representation  of  women,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  this  auxiliary 
would  be  merged  in  the  larger  institution,  and  each  would  become  auxiliary 
to  the  other.  But  that  day  is  apparently  far  ahead,  for,  with  all  its  radical 
ideas,  the  Unitarian  body  is  essentially  conservative  in  practice.  Mean  - 
time  the  women  will  work  in  their  own  way,  enlarging  their  own  hearts  and 
lives,  and  striving,  as  best  they  may,  to  impart  that  freer,  higher  life  to  those 
who  hunger  and  thirst  for  it. 

The  paper  of  Mrs.  Jennie  Fowler  Willing  is  given  here  in 
its  appointed  place. 

WOMAN    AS  A    MISSIONARY. 

Woman  has  special  aptitude  for  missionary  work  ;  Christianity  is  based 
on  self-giving.  To  reach  her  best,  woman  has  been  obliged  to  form  the 
habit   of  self-giving.      If  she  takes  the  crown   of   motherhood,    her    feet 


Philanthropies.  87 

must  touch  the  River  of  Death,  and  she  must  let  its  bitter  spray  sprinkle  her 
bowed  head. 

She  feels  the  poverty  and  pain  of  life  when  her  heart-stiings  are  tangled 
around  feet  that  wander  in  sin  to  the  world's  end.  By  the  cradle  and  dying 
bed  she  learns  the  helplessness  of  human  strength  and  the  need  of  divine 
aid.     Many  a  woman  lives,  as  kings  are  said  to  rule,  "  by  the  grace  of  God." 

In  the  world's  creed, 

"  Men  must  work  and  women  must  pray." 

The  old  Scots,  when  they  baptized  a  boy,  held  back  his  right  hand  that  it 

might  be  free  to  smite  his  enemies.     The  cry  has  been  as  in  Marmion  : 

"  You,  with  Lady  Clare, 

May  bid  your  beads  and  patter  prayer ; 
I  gallop  to  the  host." 

Piety  has  been  expected  of  woman.  Many  a  man,  himself  no  saint,  has 
felt  it  a  fine,  safe  thing  to  have  a  priestess  in  the  house. 

The  Methodist,  one  of  the  largest  of  the  Protestant  denominations,  has 
always  given  to  its  women  opportunity  and  scope.  The  real  founder  of  the 
church,  Susanna  Wesley,  was  a  preacher  of  rare  power.  Dr.  Adam  Clark 
said  of  her:  "  If  the  epithet  were  not  so  unusual,  I  should  call  her  a  very 
able  divine." 

The  first  woman's  missionary  society  was  organized  about  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago.     Now  most  of  the  denominations  have  their  home  and  foreign 
missionary  societies.     They  have  a  contributing  membership  of  about  one 
and  one-half  millions.     They  circulate  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  copies  of  missionary  papers,  besides  millions  of  pages  of  leaflets. 
They  hold  at  least  a  half-million  missionary  meetings  every  year,  presided 
over  by  women,  the  addresses  made  and  papers  read  by  the  sisterhood  that 
forty  years  ago  would  no  sooner  have  thought  of  doing  such  a  work  than  they 
would  of  taking  a  journey  to  the  moon.     They  raise  and  disburse  about  two 
millions  of  money  every  year.     Their  several  boards  scan  each  little  invest- 
ment with  as  much  care  as  if  a  fortune  were  to  be  made  in  discovering  an 
error  in  the  accounts.     The  energy  that  used  to  be  expended  upon  rag  car- 
pets and  patch-work  quilts,  and,  further  back,  upon  spinning  and  tapestry, 
has  been  turned  upon  the  wretched   huddling  places  of  women  in  our  own 
and  foreign  lands,  and  millions  upon  millions  have  been  helped  to  a  better 
life.     The  reflex  influence  of  all  this  work  has  been  measureless.     Women 
have  learned  their  own  ability,  and  they  have  convinced   their  brothers  that 
they  can  be  trusted  with  heavy  financial  interests.     They  have  seen  that  the 
heathenish  notions  that  cramp  the  feet  in  China  and  the  brain  in  India  have 
cast  their  shadow  even  over  Christian  lands.     They  have   learned  that  the 
safety  of  the  home,  their  stronghold,  depends  upon  the  permanence  of  the 
marriage  tie,  and  the  permanence  of  the  marriage  tie  depends  upon  the  dig- 
nity of  women  and  the  purity  of  men.     Men  as  well  as  women  must  be  like 
Caesar's  wife,  above  suspicion.     Women  must  demand  honor  for  honor,  in- 


88  International  Council  of  Women. ' 

tegrity  for  integrity,  and  purity  for  purity,  that  the  home  may  rest  upon  the 
corner-stone  of  Christian  and  mutual  respect  and  love.  They  have  seen  in 
their  own  land  the  ripened  fruit  of  the  careless  sowing  of  women  who  are  at 
ease  in  Zion. 

The  work  has  given  intellectual  stimulus.  It  has  shown  women  their 
indebtedness  to  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary,  the  great  leveler,  the  best  friend 
they  ever  had  or  ever  will  have,  and  that  safety  and  success  depend  upon 
their  loyalty  to  His  love.     *     #     * 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  the  delegate  of 
the  Western  Women's  Unitarian  Conference,  Victoria  M.  Richardson. 

Mrs.  Richardson.  Outside  our  General  Western  Conference,  woman's 
right  to  active  participation  in  all  the  debates  had  never  been  questioned. 
Women  asked  why  the  Woman's  Conference  was  organized  when  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  put  women  upon  its  board  and  its  programmes  and  ordained 
them  as  its  ministers?  At  first  it  was  hard  to  get  any  one  to  speak.  The 
first  year  of  our  existence,  at  our  annual  meeting,  we  had  two  hours  assigned 
to  us.  We  had  much  difficulty  in  finding  enough  women  to  fill  that  time, 
and  were  compelled  to  call  to  our  assistance  some  of  the  brethren  who 
favored  our  movement.  In  our  last  annual  meeting  our  programme  was  so 
crowded  we  were  compelled  to  enforce  strictly  the  time  rule,  and  women's 
hearts  burned  because  they  could  not  report  what  had  been  done  in  their 
personal  field — for  our  territory  extends  from  Western  New  York  to  Dakota, 
and  from  the  sunny  fields  of  Kentucky  to  Colorado.  An  army  of  busy  sec- 
retaries and  State  directors  has  developed  the  post-office  mission  work.  I 
think  eight  years  ago  we  had  two  ordained  women  ministers  in  this  great 
Western  field.  To-day  the  State  of  Iowa  alone  has  five  earnest,  noble  women, 
making  themselves  felt,  not  only  in  the  religious  world,  but  in  all  good  works 
for  the  help  and  development  of  woman. 

Ky  their  works  ye  shall  know  them,  and  the  Woman's  Western  Conference 
feels  that  the  eager  seekers  for  truth  and  light  on  the  lone  prairies  and  the 
frozen  plains  of  Dakota  have  been  cheered  and  helped  by  the  inspiration  of 
the  literature  that  has  been  carried  to  them  by  the  post-office  mission.  We 
care  not  so  much  to  send  our  own  religious  thought,  but  the  general  utter- 
ances of  all  noble  souls,  irrespective  of  theological  differences,  believing 
that  the  best  Unitarianism  is  that  which  ministers  to  needy  souls,  and  we  dis- 
tribute to  our  thousands  of  interested  readers  any  literature  that  teaches  love 
to  God  and  love  to  man. 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  The  next  speaker  is  the  delegate  and  President  of  the 
Ladies  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  I  introduce  to  you  Mrs.  Laura 
McNeir. 

Mrs.  McNeir.  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  the  mothers,  wives,  sisters, 
and  daughters  of    our  American    heroes,  and    in  explaining  my  position 


Philanthropies.  89 

would  say  to  the  ladies  on  the  stage  that  thus  far  our  hands  have  been  so  full/' 
of  supplying  the  needs  of  the  body  that  perhaps  we  have  not  yet  reached 
the  point  of  woman  suffrage.     Therefore,  if  my  remarks  are  not  particularly 
upon  that  subject  I  hope  it  will  be  understood.     *     *     * 

Standing  at  the  head  of  an  organization,  in  which  various  classes  and  con- 
ditions are  represented,  we  have  felt  that  among  its  many  objects  the  one 
which  aims  to  teach  woman  the  worth  of  true  dignity,  that  endeavors  to 
rouse  her  to  a  sense  of  her  power  and  a  right  application  of  that  power, 
is  indeed  the  object  pre-eminent.  For  though  it  is  but  human  to  enlist 
sympathy,  when  such  is  needed  for  the  distressed  of  our  country's  defenders, 
when,  after  awhile,  it  becomes  a  pleasant  duty  to  implant  seeds  of 
patriotism  in  the  bosoms  of  our  young  men  and  maidens  ;  though  it  is 
inspiring  to  lay  fresh  laurels  upon  the  brows  of  heroes  whose  brave  deeds 
grow  brighter  with  each  year's  telling  ;  though  it  is  "  sorrowing  with'sorrow  " 
to  mingle  our  tears  with  tears  of  mothers  and  wives  whose  lives  have  been 
saddened  by  war's  cruel  hand,  yet  the  efforts  made  to  awaken  and  train 
aright  woman's  influence  is  a  work  so  ennobling,  so  sublimating,  that  it 
becomes  the  pivot  upon  which  every  other  aim  of  the  order  revolves.  If  it 
be  part  of  our  creed  to  uphold  honor  and  manliness  in  man,  it  is  the  whole 
law  to  keep  the  value  and  power  of  womanhood  ever  in  sight.  We  have 
learned  through  the  bitterness  of  past  days  that  when  the  stars  of  America's 
flag  were  dimmed  by  treason's  stain,  and  when  her  great  body  poured  out  its 
loyal  blood  to  restore  their  brightness,  it  was  woman's  touch  that  staunched 
the  wound  and  woman's  love  that  soothed  the  pain.  For,  as  it  is  man's 
prerogative  to  strike  the  blow,  it  is  woman's  privilege  to  bring  the  healing ; 

and  which  is  the  greater  power,  the  might  to  wound   or  the  right  to  heal  ? 
*     *     * 

With  such  a  power,  shall  we  not  use  it  for  the  best  ?  Will  we  permit  it 
to  lie  unconscious,  unappreciated  ?  Will  we  waste  time  in  sighing  for  man's 
privileges  or  imitating  man's  strength?  What  counts  his  strength  if.  after 
all,  we  bend  it  to  our  will,  even  if  it  be  in  our  own  way?  What  are  his 
privileges  compared  to  woman's  influence  and  its  fruits,  which  began  at  cre- 
ation and  will  last  forever,  which  is  as  broad  as  heaven  and  as  vast  as  eter- 
nity ? 

The  Chairman.  There  is  probably  no  branch  of  woman's  work  that 
is  so  universal  in  its  nature  as  philanthropy.  Long  before  women  were 
educated  to  any  extent  or  before  they  were  allowed  to  enter  the  industries 
they  were  taking  part  in  helping  mankind.  It  would  therefore  be  impossi- 
ble to  represent  philanthropy  without  calling  upon  other  countries  than 
our  own.  We  are  happy  this  morning  in  having  here  a  representative 
of  France,  our  sister  republic,  the  land  which  is  striving  for  that  for  which 
we  are  striving,  a  perfect  democracy  and  perfect  equality.  The  represent- 
ative from  France,  Madame  Isabelle  Bogelot,  is  to  speak  on  the  Prison 
7 


90  International  Council  of  Women. 

Reform  Work  of  St.  Lazare,  Paris.  Many  of  us  probably  are  not  able  to 
understand  French,  but  I  know  we  are  able  to  feel  the  beauty  and  the  grace 
of  the  French  tongue. 

Madame  Bogelot,  delegate  of  the  Prison  Work  of  the  Liber- 
ated of  St.  Lazare,  Paris,  delivered  her  address  in  French. 
The  following  is  the  translation: 

Madame  Bogelot.  Those  whose  names  have  more  authority  than  mine 
in  art,  science,  politics  and  philosophy  should  have  represented  France  at 
this  Congress.  They  are  Maria  Deraismes,  Leon  Richer,  and  Hubertine 
Auclert,  who'are  especially  interested  in  woman  suffrage  and  the  vindication 
of  the  political  and  social  rights  of  women. 

There  is  Emily  de  Morsier,  who  is  vice-president  of  our  Society  of  Pris- 
ons. Hers  is  a  generous  heart  which  struggles  for  the  amelioration  of 
woman's  fate  and  the  overthrow  of  prejudice.  She  desires  equal  rights  for 
both  sexes,  and  takes  part  in  all  the  humanitarian  and  progressive  societies. 
She  desires  arbitration  always  ;  no  more  wars  between  nations.  She  has 
studied  the  origin  of  religions,  and  finds  in  each  an  ideal  of  justice  which 
must  be  the  guide  of  life.  In  education,  we  have  Caroline  de  Barrau,  who 
devotes  herself  especially  to  the  reform  of  the  University  curriculum,  and 
claims  equal  education  for  the  two  sexes*  and  equal  opportunities  in  political 
and  social  life.     She  is  a  brave  woman,  both  in  heart  and  mind. 

You  see,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  my  country  was  capable  of  coming  among 
you.  Philanthropy  is  here  specially  represented  by  myself,  but  I  am  charged 
to  assure  you  of  the  sympathy  and  the  loyalty  of  our  countrywomen  named 
above.  I  have  crossed  the  ocean  in  order  to  join  you.  I  am  well  recom- 
pensed for  it.  My  eyes  are  dazzled  by  the  spectacle  of  this  reunion.  My 
ears,  to  which  your  language  is  unfamiliar,  can  yet  frequently  comprehend, 
thanks  to  the  clearness  of  your  discourses.  You  have  deeply  moved  my 
heart  by  your  delicacy  and  consideration  for  me.  Many  among  you  will 
remember  that  you  have  had  French  ancestors,  and  that  France  gave  her 
blood  to  America  to  aid  in  the  conquest  of  independence  and  liberty.  In 
me  you  entertain  the  nation  I  represent,  and  you  treat  me  as  a  sister.  I  am 
grateful  to  you  for  it.  Permit  me  to  give  you  some  details  concerning  the 
work  of  reform  which  I  direct  in  Paris.  This  society  takes  its  name  from 
the  Prison  of  St.  Lazare,  the  only  house  of  detention  for  the  women  of 
Paris.  Its  motto  is:  "Lift  up  the  woman  who  is  in  danger  of  ruin,  and 
furnish  to  the  saved  one,  without  distinction  of  race  or  nationality,  the 
means  of  re-establishing  herself."  The  work  is  to  aid  woman  in  every  epoch 
of  her  life.  It  undertakes  the  salvation  of  young  girls  who  are  confided  to 
it,  and  protects  the  infants  whenever  it  has  the  opportunity  to  do  so.  I 
desire  especially  to  limit  this  article  to  the  fate  of  the  female  prisoners,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  explain  the  ultimate  aim  of  our  society  without  presenting 
a  few  considerations  of  a  general  character. 


Philanthropies.  91 

If  the  fate  of  the  female  prisoner  saddens  and  attracts  us  in  spite  of  the 
faults  she  has  committed,  if  we  entertain  for  her  sentiments  of  pity  and 
indulgence,  it  is  because  our  conscience  cries  that  this  woman  has  rights  and 
that  we  owe  a  duty  to  her.  The  more  the  patroness  enters  into  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  prisoner,  the  more  she  discovers  the  responsibility  of 
society,  which  has  been  unjust  toward  woman — always  sacrificed  to  man, 
brought  up  in  inferior  moral  and  intellectual  conditions — which  excuses- his 
faults  and  diminishes,  even  to  forgetfulness,  her  personality.  The  evil  is  a 
grave  one ;  it  has  deep  roots,  but  it  is  not  without  remedy ;  it  is  sufficient 
for  us  who  gauge  it  that  we  wish  to  cure  it,  in  order  to  diminish  and  perhaps 
to  destroy  it  entirely.  We  must  fight,  hand  to  hand,  all  prejudices,  all 
injustice,  and,  as  I  said  in  a  report  presented  to  our  society  in  1886 :  "  The 
social  problems  would  not  be  difficult  to  solve  if  we  applied  always  and 
everywhere  principles  of  justice,  of  morality,  and  of  fraternity." 

Conferences,  congresses  bring  together  and  unite  ;  they  stimulate  the 
desire  to  do  better  ;  they  instruct  by  exchange  of  ideas ;  they  throw  light  on 
points  hitherto  obscure  and  ignored.  The  success  of  the  cause  of  woman 
will  be  the  recompense  of  these  reunions,  composed  of  those  who  are  sincere 
in  their  convictions.  The  female  prisoner  is  a  social  wound,  and  the  prisons 
are  the  places  where  the  evil  is  propagated  and  aggravated.  We  must,  at  all 
hazards,  prevent  human  beings  from  entering  the  prison,  and  when  mis- 
fortune has  put  them  there  it  is  our  duty  to  attempt  the  impossible,  as  it 
were,  in  order  to  sweeten  their  captivity  and  to  give  them  a  distaste  for  that 
sort  of  existence.  Such  is  the  end  which  the  work  of  the  Liberated  of  St. 
Lazare  desires  to  attain.  It  knows  the  female  prisoner  in  the  prison,  and  is 
employed  in  preparing  for  her  return  to  the  world.  The  immediate  aid  con- 
sists in  the  visits  which  the  benefactresses  make  during  the  detention  of  the 
prisoner ;  it  is  a  role  of  consolation,  comfort,  and  hope  for  her.  This  is  the 
period  of  study  for  the  visiting  lady ;  she  observes  thus  the  character  of  the 
condemned,  who  appeals  to  her  voluntarily.  The  work  of  the  Liberated 
continues  its  beneficent  action  in  giving  some  small  aid  in  the  way  of  money  on 
the  day  of  liberation  ;  but  this  method  of  help  should  be  exceptional. 

The  Society  has,  in  addition,  two  modest  asylums  which  receive  temporarily 
the  discharged  who  has  no  family  or  who  is  not  reconciled  with  her  family  on 
the  day  of  her  discharge.  In  these  asylums  the  liberated  ones  are  affection- 
ately counseled  by  guardians.  They  seek  to  stimulate  their  energy  by  awak- 
ening in  them  will  power,  a  plan  so  warmly  advocated  byMme.  Concepcion 
Arenal  in  her  report  presented  to  the  Congress  Penitentiare  of  Rome,  in 
December,  1885.  In  order  to  lift  up  the  discharged  woman  it  is  necessary 
that  she  should  desire  it ;  and,  in  order  that  She  should  desire  it,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  she  should  be  able  to  will  it.  Thus  the  effort  of  her  will  is  aided  in 
pointing  out  to  her  the  establishments  where  she  has  some  opportunity  of 
finding  for  herself  work — where  she  may  debate  concerning  the  conditions 


92  International  Council  of  Women. 

and  the  price.  She  must  have  the  responsibility  of  her  regained  liberty. 
It  is  only  in  this  way  that  one  can  hope  for  a  complete  cure.  The  freed  one 
must  realize  that  she  is  her  own  mistress,  and  she  must  be  led  to  solicit  for 
herself  our  support  and  our  aid.  This  manner  of  action  offers  some  chance 
of  success,  but  it  demands  much  work  from  those  who  make  the  trial.  The 
female  prisoner  is  the  result  of  a  social  condition.  She  is  a  fallen  and  help- 
less woman.  She  has  but  little  power  of  resistance,  and  in  order  to  conduct 
herself  rightly  none  can  ignore  the  fact  that  she  must  resist  with  perseverance. 
Injustice  and  immorality  always  weigh  heavily  on  her ;  her  judgment  is  dis- 
torted ;  everything  urges  her  on  to  rebellion  and  hatred,  and  her  sojourn  in 
prison  only  aggravates  this  wicked  disposition.  Injustice  displaced  woman ; 
justice  alone  can  give  back  to  her  the  place  to  which  she  has  a  right. 

How  many  heartaches  does  one  experience  in  visits  to  the  prison  !  What 
souvenirs  rest  in  the  grave  of  memory!  One  can  not  refrain  from  ardently 
desiring  those  reforms  which  shall  give  back  to  woman  confidence  in  herself. 
Many  poor  creatures  go  out  from  prison  only  to  return  there  very  quickly, 
because  they  have  no  force  to  struggle  for  life  and  to  provide  for  their  needs. 
And  the  children,  who  are  with  their  mothers,  unmindful  of  that  horrible  place 
in  which  they  are  shut  up,  but  which  they  will  remember  later  if  they  live,- 
for  they  are  deformed,  diseased,  and  death  watches  for  them  !  The  prison 
will  kill  them.  They  entered  there  in  a  dying  condition,  and  the  lack  of 
pure  air  will  accomplish  their  death. 

The  Work  of  the  Liberated  of  St.  Lazare  always  interests  itself  in  woman. 
It  aids  her  during  pregnancy ;  brings  her  help  at  the  time  of  the  birth  of 
her  baby ;  sustains  the  girl-mother ;  stands  to  her  in  the  place  of  family ; 
receives  often  the  abandoned  or  maltreated  child ;  seeks  honest  employers 
where  the  little  one  may  be  placed  in  apprenticeship  in  order  to  give  her 
means  of  living  and  to  save  her  from  passing  through  the  prison  as  her 
mother  has  done  ;  pays  arrearages ;  gives  little  certificates  of  rent ;  reclaims 
articles  from  the  pawnbroker ;  indemnifies  employers  in  order  to  regain  pos- 
session of  the  trunk  which  is  the  only  fortune  of  a  nurse  who  has  been  con- 
victed of  her  first  larceny.  The  society  seeks  still  (and  it  is  one  of  its 
triumphs)  to  mollify  the  complainants;  if  the  cause  of  complaint  is  slight 
it  obtains  a  stay  of  proceedings  and  carries  it  to  the  judge,  who  yields  and 
dismisses  the  unfortunate  with  an  order  of  nolle  prosequi.  By  this  means 
the  first  condemnation  and  its  sad  consequences  are  avoided.  The  society 
restores  to  their  homes,  whenever  it  is  possible,  the  children  who  have  left 
the  paternal  fireside.  It  brings  back  into  favor  the  girl-mothers  driven  from 
the  family,  and  causes  the  grandparents  to  adopt  the  infants. 

Read  the  reports  of  our  society,  which  has  been  laboring  regularly  and 
progressing  step  by  step  for  nineteen  years.  Come  and  pay  a  visit  to  our 
bureau.  You  will  go  away  convinced  that  the  work  of  the  Liberated  of  St. 
Lazare  renders  great  services,  that  it  merits  sympathy  and  the  encouragement 


Philanthropies.  93 

of  all  those  who  are  interested  in  philanthropy,  and  that  it  is  well  worthy  of 
a  place  in  the  Revue  du  Progressive  Morale. 

If  man,  after  having  committed  a  fault  and  having  been  punished  for 
it,  experiences,  on  his  discharge  from  prison,  great  difficulty  in  regaining 
his  place  in  society,  the  woman  who  finds  herself  in  the  same  situation  has 
such  great  impediments  that  it  amounts  almost  to  an  impossibility  for  her  to 
rise  again.  It  seems  that  the  world  exacts  from  woman,  although  less  pro- 
tected than  man,  perfect  freedom  from  sin,  and  refuses  to  receive  her  again 
after  a  fall  or  an  error.  This  one  shocking  iniquity  is  prevalent  in  nearly 
every  country.  In  Paris,  it  is  increased  by  the  state  of  the  prison  of  St. 
Lazare,  the  only  one  which  receives  women  ;  gathers  between  the  same  walls 
young  girls  under  paternal  correction,  the  accused,  the  condemned  and 
the  prostitute.  The  result  is  that  the  public  confounds  the  women  who 
come  from  the  St.  Lazare  with  prostitutes,  surrounds  them  with  the  same  scorn, 
and  finds  in  that  a  convenient  excuse  for  refusing  to  aid  them.  The  unhappy 
prisoners  themselves  feel  so  deeply  the  horror  of  this  situation  that  they 
dread  the  prison  less  than  the  hour  when  they  regain  the  liberty  which  will 
force  them  to  face  the  general  scorn  and  the  difficulties  of  existence  which 
they  foresee  to  be  insurmountable.  It  is  the  deep  pity  for  the  being  who 
prefers  perchance  imprisonment  to  liberty,  and  even  dreads  the  latter  as  a 
worse  penance  than  the  prison  itself,  which  has  given  birth  to  the  work  of 
the  Liberated  of  St.  Lazare.  To  preserve  the  woman  in  danger  of  being 
lost,  and  furnish  to  the  liberated,  without  distinction  of  religion  or  nation- 
ality, the  means  of  rising  again  ;  such  is  the  programme  of  the  work. 

The  directress-general,  to  whom  the  administration  has  granted  entrance 
into  the  prison,  goes  there  once  or  several  times  every  week.  She  sees  the 
prisoners,  encourages  them,  consoles  them  and  informs  herself  as  to  their 
needs  for  the  day  of  their  discharge.  One,  coming  from  the  country  in 
order  to  go  into  service  in  the  city,  commits  there  some  fault,  and, 
wakened  from  her  delusions,  wishes  to  return  to  her  family,  who  repulse 
her.  The  directress  then  writes  to  the  parents  in  order  to  prevail  on  them 
to  yield;  to  the  pastor  or  the  mayor,  interceding  for  her  protege.  They  offer 
to  pay  for  the  guilty  child,  and  success  is  often  the  result.  Above  all,  they 
give  clothes,  destined  to  replace  the  prison  garments  in  which  the  liberated 
would  find  herself  at  once  repulsed.  Sometimes  a  little  money  is  given,  as 
little  as  possible,  the  money  of  charity  profiting  rarely  if  one  can  not  watch 
strictly  over  its  manner  of  being  spent.  Generally,  the  directress  can,  it 
may  be  personally,  it  may  be  with  the  aid  of  the  lady  patronesses,  take 
measures  in  time,  so  that  the  aid  desired  may  be  ready  at  the  hour  of  dis- 
charge from  the  prison.  It  is  important,  in  fact,  not  to  leave  the  aban- 
doned ones  to  themselves  a  day,  even  an  hour  ;  those  unfortunates,  who, 
robbed  of  their  innocence,  would  be  immediately  a  sure  prey  for  which  crime 
and  debauch  are  watching.    But,  in  spite  of  the  good-will  which  is  displayed 


94  International  Council  of  Women. 

there,  it  sometimes  happens  that  one  can  not  succeed  in  giving  the  promised 
aid  until  after  the  discharge  from  the  prison. 

In  order  to  remedy  this  grave  inconvenience,  Madame  Bogelot,  some  years 
ago,  prevailed  on  the  society  to  adopt  a  plan  which  she  submitted  to  it,  of 
creating  for  these  special  cases  temporary  asylums  of  a  very  simple  kind. 
There  were  hired  at  Billancourt  first  one,  then  two,  little  pavilions,  where, 
under  the  guardianship  of  a  working  woman,  an  honest  housekeeper,  there 
were  received  some  of  the  discharged  or  their  children  into  each  asylum 
during  the  days  of  necessary  delay.  In  that  little  retreat,  modest  and  full  of 
industry,  often  like  the  one  which  they  had  had  and  should  have  preserved, 
the  liberated  women  live  in  a  sort  of  moral  convalescence,  where  their  energy 
regains  strength,  an  energy  which  has  been  depressed  or  which  has  disap- 
peared, it  may  be  through  their  fault,  it  may  be  for  lack  of  education  or  their 
sojourn  in  prison.  No  rule  of  labor  is  imposed  on  the  women  ;  they  are 
only  asked  to  share  in  the  household  work  until  the  day  when,  with  the  aid 
of  the  work,  they  shall  be  placed  anew  in  employment  corresponding  with 
their  capabilities.  They  find  again  in  those  kindly  homes  the  necessary 
strength  for  taking  up  again  the  interrupted  current  of  a  regular  and  honest 
life.  The  work  counts  nearly  twenty  years  of  existence.  It  has  already  done 
much  good,  and  can  not  fail  to  do  more,  when  St.  Lazare,  being  discon- 
tinued as  the  only  prison  for  women,  the  great  social  iniquity  shall  have 
disappeared.  St.  Lazare  having  ceased  (it  is  promised,  at  least)  to  receive 
the  mixture  of  prostitutes  and  prisoners,  in  order  to  keep  only  prostitutes, 
the  work  which  bears  its  name  will  be  necessarily  obliged  to  modify  its  title ; 
but  the  need  of  giving  aid  to  the  liberated  continuing,  it  will  persevere  under 
a  new  title  in  fulfilling,  as  in  the  past,  the  mission  which  has  been  self- 
appointed. 

If  one  considers  the  sum  of  money  expended  each  year  by  the  work,  less 
than  15,000  francs,  it  is  astonishing  that  one  can  do  so  much  with  such  fee- 
ble means.  But  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  object  of  the  work  is  less  to 
distribute  charity  than  to  seek,  by  counsel,  by  journeys,  by  personal  exer- 
tions-, to  place  the  liberated  women  on  the  good  road  of  honesty,  work,  and 
duty.  In  acting  as  it  has  done,  the  Association  for  the  Liberated  Women  of 
St.  Lazare  considers  that,  in  the  limit  of  its  means  and  in  the  specialty  which 
it  has  chosen,  it  works  not  uselessly  in  the  general  cause  of  the  rights  of 
woman,  and  that  it  is  in  complete  union  of  sentiment  with  all  the  members 
of  the  Council,  who  claim  for  woman,  in  the  name  of  progress,  of  justice, 
and  of  humanity,  the  title  of  companion  and  equal  of  man. 

In  closing,  I  thank  you  for  your  kind  attention.  I  will  not  say  good-bye 
to  you.  My  country  is  very  far  from  yours,  but  we  will  not  forget  each 
other.  We  have  shared  the  same  life  and  the  same  works,  and  our  hand- 
claspings  have  confirmed  the  sentiments  of  our  hearts. 


Philanthropies.  95 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  The  next  phase  of  philanthropy  is  that  of  hospital  work, 
and  our  representative  here  to-day  who  will  speak  on  that  subject  is  Mrs. 
Ednah  D.  Cheney,  of  Boston,  the  President  and  Delegate  of  the  New 
England  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  whom  I  have  now  the  great 
honor  of  introducing  to  you. 

HOSPITALS  MANAGED  BY  AND  FOR  WOMEN. 

Mrs.  Cheney.  In  the  whole  department  of  education  in  its  relation  to 
practical  industry,  the  most  important  point  to  be  enforced  is  thorough  train- 
ing with  reference  to  the  special  work  to  be  done.  Women  have  been  and 
still  are  placed  at  great  disadvantage  in  this  respect  as  compared  with  men, 
mainly  from  three  causes.  The  first  is  the  want  of  pecuniary  means,  which 
often  renders  it  difficult  or  impossible  for  a  woman  to  give  years  to  unremuner- 
ative  study.  The  second  is  the  lack  of  a  definite  purpose  in  life,  adopted 
at  an  early  age  and  steadily  pursued,  which  comes  from  the  common  Ameri- 
can idea  that  women  should  not  look  upon  self-support  as  a  natural  duty. 
The  third  reason  is  that  women  are  deluded,  by  the  idea  of  some  royal  road 
to  knowledge  by  a  quick  process  of  intuition,  by  which  they  may  gain  what 
o'hers  have  won  through  slow,  patient  study.  In  the  profession  of  medi- 
cine this  last  position  is  quite  untenable.  The  experience  of  the  last  thirty 
years  confirms  this  truth.     *     *     * 

When  Dr.  Elizabeth  Blackwell  returned  from  Europe  she  saw  the  necessity 
of  providing  practical  study  for  women.  She  appealed  to  friends  for  help, 
and  was  thus  enabled  to  open  a  small  dispensary.  In  1852  a  charter  was 
obtained  to  establish  "The  New  York  Infirmary  for  Women  and  Children." 
Dr.  Emily  Blackwell  had  already  gone  to  Europe  for  her  clinical  study. 
In  1855  Dr.  Marie  E.  Zakrzewska,  who  had  had  much  hospital  experience 
in  her  own  city  of  Berlin,  Germany,  and  had  received  her  degree  in  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  joined  the  Doctors  Blackwell  in  New  York.  The  need  of  clini- 
cal instruction  became  constantly  more  evident  as  every  year  more  women 
graduated  from  the  two  medical  schools,  and  the  magnificent  hospitals  of 
Philadelphia  and  Boston  as  well  as  of  New  York  still  refused  them  admission. 
Finding  that  a  new  impulse  must  be  given  to  the  work,  the  young  German 
woman,  Dr.  Zakrzewska  offered  to  visit  the  two  cities  having  medical  schools 
to  plead  for  the  completion  of  the  education  of  medical  graduates,  and  to 
ask  for  money  to  establish  the  hospital,  for  which  a  charter  was  already 
obtained.  Boston  was  selected  as  the  first  place  to  visit,  and  thus  began  the 
work  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  to  you.  Dr.  Zakrzewska  pleaded 
the  necessity  of  her  work  so  strongly  that  the  women  of  Boston  became 
interested,  and  promised  assistance  so  far  as  to  subscribe,  for  three  years, 
half  of  the  rent  needed  to  hire  a  building  in  which  the  first  hospital  where 
women  might  practice  their  profession  and  teach  it  to  others  could  be 
opened.     In  Philadelphia  her  pleading  had  a  different  effect.     The  enlight- 


96  International  Council  of  Women. 

ened  friends  who  supported  the  Medical  College  for  Women  were  convinced 
that  if  a  hospital  was  needed  for  such  purpose  in  New  York  it  was  equally- 
needed  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  government  of  the  college  at  once  began  to 
agitate  the  subject  of  clinical  instruction,  although  the  hospital]was  not  estab- 
lished until  three  years  after  the  successful  existence  of  the  New  York 
Infirmary.     *     *     * 

But  the  value  of  the  work  was  so  fully  understood  by  the  friends  of  women's 
medical  education  that  when  Dr.  Zakrzewska  resigned  her  position  as  pro- 
fessor of  obstetrics  in  the  clinical  department  of  one  of  the^colleges,  she 
was  at  once  requested  to  join  in  establishing  the  New  England^Hospital  for 
Women  and  Children,  which  was  opened  in  June,  1862.  The  great  pur- 
pose was  to  give  to  graduated  women  the  chance  of  studying  and  practicing 
their  profession,  after  acquiring  theoretic  knowledge,  by  giving  them  admis- 
sion to  the  hospitals  as  internes.  Our  hospital  thus  differs  from  those  of  the 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  Colleges  in  not  being  connected  with  any  school, 
but  receiving  graduates  of  recognized  colleges  admitting  women.     *     *     *■ 

The  trained  nurse  is  recognized  as  the  physician's  needed  helper.  From 
the  original  object  of  educating  women  at  once  resulted  the  great  charity 
of  affording  to  women  the  professional  care  of  their  own  sex.  Num- 
bers of  women  have  suffered  for  years  from  unwillingness  to  apply  to  men, 
and  it  is  conclusively  proved  that  confidence  in  the  care  of  her  own  sex  is 
confined  to  no  class  of  women,  but  is  shared  alike  by  rich  and  poor,  learned 
and  ignorant,  native  and  foreign. 

We  have  six  or  occasionally  seven  matrons  connected  with  our  hospital, 
four  or  five  of  them  residing  in  the  hospital  and  two  or  three  in  the  dispen- 
sary building.  They  are  all  graduates  of  some  recognized  medical  college, 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Michigan  University  furnishing  the  largest 
number.  We  have  received  students  from  England  and  Scotland,  and  even 
one  from  India,  a  graduate  of  the  Philadelphia  college. 

One  of  the  most  important  parts  of  hospital  experience  to  the  interne  is- 
the  midwifery  department,  a  branch  of  practice  in  which  the  fitness  of  women 
is  most  readily  recognized.  It  is  acknowledged  that  greater  advantages  of 
study  can  be  given  to  women  in  these  hospitals  than  are  open  even  to  men 
in  any  other  way.  We  recognize  fully  the  rights  of  every  human  being,  and 
are  careful  of  the  feelings  of  even  the  fallen  women  ;  but,  almost  unconsci- 
ously to  herself,  she  may  be  made  the  subject  of  scientific  observation  and 
study,  which  is  but  a  righteous  return  for  the  shelter,  food,  and  care  which 
is  supplied  to  her. 

Dr.  Zakrzewska  says  : 

"Remarkable  success  has  been  attained  in  the  surgical  department,  which  is  of 
the  utmost  importance,  especially  in  gynaecological  cases.  The  greatest  of  abdomi- 
nal operations  are  now  performed  by  one  woman  connected  with  the  hospital,  and 
the  percentage  of  recovery  is  equal  to  that  of  other  good  hospitals  here  or  in 
Europe." 


Philanthropies.  97 

I  have  a  list  of  the  following  hospitals,  similar  to  our  own  in  aim  and  man- 
agement: New  York  Infirmary,  1857;  Woman's  Hospital,  Philadelphia; 
New  England  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  Boston,  1862;  Chicago 
Hospital  for  Women  and  Children  ;  Pacific  Dispensary  and  Hospital  for 
Women  and  Children,  San  Francisco;  Ohio  Hospital,  Cincinnati;  North- 
western Hospital,  Minneapolis.  I  think  we  can  truly  claim  that  all  these 
institutions  in  our  own  country  owe  the  inspiration  of  their  establishment  to 
the  three  pioneers  of  whom  I  have  spoken.  They  are  all  conducted  on  sim- 
ilar plans,  and  have  achieved  similar  results.  The  hospital  in  Chicago,  like 
other  prominent  children  of  the  East  transplanted  to  the  West,  has  out- 
grown its  parents,  and  is  now  the  largest  institution  of  this  kind  in  this  coun- 
try, and  probably  in  the  world.     It  has  eighty  beds. 

While  writing  these  notes  a  letter  came  tome  from  a  city  in  Illinois,  asking 
for  advice  and  encouragement  in  starting  a  hospital  in  that  place  by  the 
Woman's  Club,  numbering  eighty  women.  The  Ohio  Hospital  for  Women 
and  Children,  at  Cincinnati,  established  in  1862,  is  still  small,  reporting  only 
sixty  patients  in  the  year.  Its  managers  are  full  of  hope  and  courage.  Its 
general  management  is  similar  to  that  of  others  I  have  named,  but  the  treat- 
ment is  exclusively  homoeopathic.  The  Massachusetts  Homoeopathic  Hospital 
is  connected  with  the  Medical  College  of  Boston  University.  The  funds  of 
the  old  Female  Medical  College  of  Boston  were  transferred  to  this  school, 
and  it  admits  women  as  students  and  professors.  Its  hospital  is  open  to 
women  as  internes. 

The  recognition  of  the  need  of  clinical  instruction  for  women  has  led  to  the 
establishment  of  similar  hospitals  in  Great  Britain.  Dr.  Sophia  Jex  Blake, 
who  received  her  inspiration  and  desire  to  study  medicine  at  the  New  England 
Hospital,  from  Dr.  Lucy  Sewall,  whose  student  she  became,  states  that 
clinical  study  is  required  in  the  University  of  London  and  the  Royal  Uni- 
versity of  Ireland,  the  only  general  medical  colleges  yet  open  to  women  in 
Great  Britain.  This  instruction  is  supplied  by  four  hospitals  in  London, 
operated  wholly  or  in  part  by  medical  women  ;  by  one  hospital  and  two  dis- 
pensaries in  Edinburgh,  two  hospitals  in  Birmingham,  and  one  in  Manches- 
ter. The  female  medical  schools  in  each  case  have  a  hospital  attached  to  the 
school. 

In  Berlin,  Germany,  a  dispensary  and  small  hospital  has  been  in  operation 
for  ten  years,  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Franziska  Tiburtius.  But  the  work 
begun  in  our  land  has  spread  even  more  widely.  Three  hospitals  are  estab- 
lished in  India:  Kama  Hospital,  Bombay;  Lady  Dufferin's  Dispensary, 
Calcutta  ;  Maternity  Hospital,  at  Lahore.  Dr.  Charlotte  Ellaby,  who,  in 
conjunction  with  Dr.  Edith  Pechy,  has  been  doing  such  excellent  work  at  the 
Kama  Hospital,  has  left  for  Hyderabad  Sum,  where  the  municipality  is  about 
to  open  a  Woman's  Dispensary. 

While  I  earnestly  desire  the  opening  of  all  medical  colleges  as  of  other 


98  International  Council  of  Women. 

educational  institutions  to  both  sexes,  and  hope  that  women  will  be  admitted 
to  share  in  the  clinical  advantages  of  large  general  hospitals,  I  yet  believe 
that  the  smaller  hospital,  mainly  officered  by  women,  and  specially  for  the 
treatment  of  women,  and  their  clinical  instruction  of  students,  will  yet  for 
a  long  time,  and  perhaps  always,  be  of  great  importance,  and  I  certainly 
think  that  at  present  no  single  practical  agency  is  doing  more  for  the  educa- 
tion, elevation  and  welfare  of  women. 

These  hospitals  also  create  and  maintain  an  esprit  de  corps  among  women 
in  the  profession,  since  all  those  connected  with  them  continue  to  feel  an 
interest  in  them  and  in  each  other,  and  thus  the  isolation  of  the  practitioner 
is  relieved,  and  the  advancement  of  one  is  for  the  benefit  of  all. 

The  next  address  was  by  Miss  Harriet  N.  Morris,  who  is  the 
delegate  representing  the  public-school  work  of  women.  Her 
subject  was 

MISSIONARY   WORK. 

Miss  Morris.  *  *  *  Dr.  Peabody,  in  an  article  in  the  Forum,  entitled 
"Books  which  have  Helped  Me,"  pays  grateful  tribute  to  Webster's  old 
"Elementary  Spelling-Book,"  for  having  given  to  him  in  childhood  that 
which  had  been  to  him  of  great  value,  in  after-years,  as  a  teacher  and 
preacher — "  No  man  can  put  off  the  law  ot  God."  Again  and  again  he  had 
found  himself  expressing  the  thought  in  varied  language,  in  his  lessons  with 
young  men  as  well  as  in  the  more  studied  discourse  of  the  pulpit.  The  old 
lexicographer  might  have  arranged  his  "  words  of  one  syllable"  in  a  vertical 
column — an  arrangement  most  agreeable  to  some  teachers — but  the  loss  to 
Dr.  Peabody  and  his  pupils  no  one  could  measure.  Man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone. 

Let  me  farther  speak  of  the  spelling-book  as  furnishing  words  which  are 
seed-thoughts,  or  weapons,  or  torch-bearers — for  they  are  any  or  all  of  these 
in  the  hands  of  the  trained  Christian  teacher.  The  history  of  the  little  word 
idiot  will  serve  the  purpose  to  illustrate  what  I  mean.  As  you  know,  it  meant 
originally,  among  the  Greeks,  simply  one  who  had  no  voice  in  the  govern- 
ment. To-day  such  a  definition  would  not  be  acceptable,  since  it  would  fire 
to  resentment  any  chivalrous  boy  if  applied  to  his  mother.  His  mother  is 
not  the  inferior  of  his  father  in  his  eyes !  If  the  Greeks  called  one  who 
could  not  vote  an  idiot,  what  should  we  call  one  who  can  vote  and  yet  does 
not?  Is  a  privilege  ever  a  duty?  Has  one  a  right  to  ignore  a  duty? 
These  questions  pave  the  way  for  the  study  of  the  word  scoundrel,  which, 
the  philologist  tells  us,  meant  originally  simply  one  who  absconds  at  muster- 
roll — one  absent  when  he  should  have  been  present.  Has  any  American 
citizen  a  right  to  abscond  on  election  day? 

Indifference  is  as  unworthy  as  fear.  In  no  unmistakable  terms,  God  has 
given  (Rev.  III.,  16)  his  estimate  of  the  man  who  is  lukewarm,  caring  not  to 
take  the  trouble  to  show  on  which  side  he  is  to  be  found  in  the  great  battle 


Philanthropies.  99 

between  right  and  wrong.  In  the  days  of  Homer,  to  be  heroic  was  to  be 
godlike,  Kingsley  tells  us  that  "  among  the  Homeric  Greeks  a  hero  or 
heroine  was  a  man  or  woman  who  was  like  the  gods  [helpful],  and  who,  from 
that  likeness,  stood  superior  to  his  or  her  fellow-creatures.  They  were  sup- 
posed to  be  in  some  way  or  other  partakers  of  the  divine  nature — akin  to 
the  gods.  The  hero,  by  virtue  of  his  kindred  with  the  gods,  was  always 
expected  to  be  better  than  common  men.  He  ought  to  have — to  be  true  to 
his  name  of  hero  he  must  have — justice,  self-restraint,  and  that  highest  form 
of  modesty  for  which  we  have,  alas  !  no  name  in  our  English  tongue — that 
perfect  respect  for  the  feelings  of  others  which  springs  from  perfect  self- 
respect.  If  a  kinsman  of  the  gods,  he  must  fight  on  their  side  against  the 
side  of  all  wrong." 

I  have  shown,  or  rather  suggested,  some  ways  in  which  the  study  of  words 
may  serve  our  "mission  high  "  in  the  class-room.  In  this  study  of  words 
there  is  the  widest  opportunity.  Now  and  then  comes  the  occasion  for  a 
rejuvenating  laugh.  An  associate  teacher  came  to  my  room  one  day  with 
beaming  face  and  said,  "  Here  is  something  you  will  enjoy."  She  had 
brought  a  boy's  written  work  in  spelling.  The  class  had  been  given  the  word 
oblate  to  spell  and  define,  after  which  it  must  be  put  into  a  sentence  to  show 
whether  he  had  apprehended  its  "  true  meaning,"  as  Kingsley  would  say. 

In  Wallace  P 's  book  was  found,  "John  was  oblate  on  election  day." 

With  soberest  protest  the  boy  maintained  his  position  when  questioned  by 
his  teacher.  "  Did  not  oblate  mean  '  flattened  at  the  poles  ?'  "  "  Did  not 
flattened  at  the  poles  mean  knocked  down  on  election  day?"  Therefore 
"  John  " — his  John — "  was  oblate  on  election  day  !"  His  logic  was  irresist- 
ible, and  so  was  our  laughter,  and  we  count  our  vocabulary  richer  for  this 
new  rendering  of  an  c/ld  word. 

In  our  eagerness  for  the  mastery  of  the  text-book  we  sometimes  forget 
that  this  acquisition  is  only  a  means  to  an  end ;  that  the  real  work  of  the 
teacher  is  to  help  the  boy  to  become  a  manly  man  and  the  girl  a  womanly 
woman — not  so  eager  to  get  gold  as  to  know  God  and  to  serve  him  best 
through  service  to  others.  With  this  purpose  planted  in  her  heart,  nothing 
will  escape  the  quick  eye  of  the  alert  teacher.  The  book,  the  periodical, 
the  daily  paper,  the  chat  with  a  friend,  the  still,  small  voice  within,  the 
silent  hour  alone  with  nature — all  are  fruitful  for  her  purpose. 

The  teacher  is  a  citizen-maker,  and  as  such  should  have  an  interest  in  all 

the  vital  questions  of  the  day.     Such  teaching  is  missionary  work.     It  is  not 

easy,  but  it  is  possible.     Mrs.  Browning  sings  : 

What  are  we  sent  to  earth  for  ?    Say,  to  toil ; 

Nor  seek  to  leave  thy  tending  of  the  vines, 

For  all  the  heat  o'  the  day  till  it  declines, 

And  death's  mild  curfew  shall  from  work  assoil. 

God  did  anoint  thee  with  his  odorous  oil, 

To  wrestle,  not  to  reign ;  and  he  assigns 

All  thy  tears,  like  pure  crystallines, 


100  International  Council  of  Women. 

For  younger  fellow-workers  of  the  soil 

To  wear  for  amulets.    So  others  shall 

Take  patience,  labor,  to  their  heart  and  hand. 

From  thy  hand,  and  thy  heart,  and  thy  brave  cheer, 

And  God's  grace  fructify  through  thee  to  all. 

The  least  flower,  with  a  brimming  cup,  may  stand, 

And  share  its  dew-drop  with  another  near. 

Mrs.  Shattuck.     I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Mrs.  Amelia  S.  Quin- 
ton,  Delegate  and  President  of  the  Woman's  National  Indian  Association. 

THE  WORK  AND  OBJECTS  OF  THE  WOMAN'S  NATIONAL  INDIAN  ASSOCIATION. 

Mrs.  Quinton.  Every  society  earnestly  covets  for  its  work  a  hearing  in 
influential  centers,  and  every  organization  represented  on  to-day's  programme 
is,  therefore,  to  be  congratulated.  We  are  met  under  the  auspices  of  a  Soci- 
ety possessing  great  intellectual  power  and  moral  force,  and  with  a  wide  and 
influential  constituency  throughout  the  country,  and  its  motto,  variously 
phrased,  may  be  said  to  be  "  Break  every  evil  yoke,  set  free  the  prisoners 
unjustly  held,  and  direct  to  right  ends  their  best  abilities."  The  members 
of  this  association  have  long  and  devotedly  labored  for  legally-oppressed 
women.  To  these  and  to  all  in  any  way  associated  I  plead  for  a  race  of 
native  American  women,  who,  whatever  their  ability,  have  no  voice  in  the 
governments  over  them,  and  no  legal  control  of  their  property  and  children. 
We  of  the  white  race  have  many  and  great  privileges,  many  and  great  pro- 
tections, much  light  and  generations  of  growth  in  culture  and  faith.  Our 
Indian  sisters,  with  few  exceptions,  have  no  protected  rights  to  these,  and 
their  poverty  and  weakness  should  be  our  appeal  for  them,  and  command  at 
least  a  share  of  our  labors  till  they  have  what  we  possess.  *  *  *  When 
the  work  of  the  Women's  National  Indian  Association  opened,  in  the  spring 
of  1879,  it  found  many  tribes  still  in  utter  savagery;  as  for  example,  the  600 
Hualapais  of  Arizona,  who  for  six  months  at  one  time,  it  was  officially 
reported,  subsisted  on  grasshoppers  and  grass  seeds,  having  only  a  sand-bar- 
ren for  a  reservation,  no  homes,  no  property,  no  clothing  even,  worth  the 
mention  ;  it  found  the  5,000  Apaches  of  that  Territory  warlike,  revengeful, 
and  often  stung  almost  to  madness  by  fraud,  falsehood  and  famine.  It 
found  others,  as  the  17,000  Navajos,  a  pastoral  people,  independent,  self- 
supporting,  but  with  a  wild,  Arab  sort  of  civilization;  it  found  the  Pueblo 
Indians  in  stone  houses  and  with  but  a  half  Spanish  civilization  ;  it  found 
the  red  men  of  the  plains  nomad  paupers  and  beggars;  it  found  the  tribes  of 
the  Pacific,  Montana,  and  the  great  Northwest  largely  savage,  though  some 
had  begun  agriculture  and  other  civilized  pursuits  ;  it  found  a  few  of  the 
40,000  Sioux  well  advanced,  and  many  others  making  a  feeble  beginning  of 
civilization.  The  new  work  found  all  these,  and  others,  possessed  of  all  the 
usual  human  attributes  and  doing  just  as  other  races  have  done,  and  as  our 
own  race  has  done  in  like  case,  and  in  nowise  worse  than  others  in  such  cir- 
cumstances, and  furnishing  ample  demonstration  that  men  in  all  the  tribes 
were  ready  to  labor  when  assured  of  the  products  of  their  toil,  the  industrial 
statistics  being  favorable  for  those  in  their  situation.     *     *     * 


Philanthropies.  101 

Thirty-three  States  are  represented  in  the  Association,  and  about  one  hun- 
dred societies  in  all  have  been  organized.  Great  changes  in  popular  senti- 
ment have  followed,  and,  as  always,  the  governmental  policy  has  expressed 
these  changes.  All  now  concede  that  civilization,  education,  citizenship, 
and  Christianity  can  alone  solve  the  Indian  problem,  and  that  these  are  solv- 
ing it,  there  is  overwhelming  demonstration  in  all  sections. 

And  now  let  me  include  in  one  statement  the  objects  of  the  work  so  briefly 
outlined  in  this  paper.  The  Association  proposes  to  labor  unremittingly  to 
secure  the  reign  of  law  and  the  payment  of  our  national  debts  to  these 
natives,  and  the  removal  from  the  path  of  the  Indian  women  the  legal  obsta- 
cles which  prevent  their  fulfilling  the  responsibilities  laid  upon  them  by  the 
Creator  in  his  gifts  consecrated  to  the  utmost  use  of  all  their  powers  for 
themselves,  for  their  children  and  their  race.  The  obstacle  of  ignorance 
now  barring  their  development  must  first  of  all  be  removed,  and  this  means 
to  every  good  woman  in  our  land  the  duty  of  cancelling  the  obligations  of 
centuries  to  these  native  peoples  by  sending  to  them  able,  patient  and  loving 
instructors  of  home  duties  and  industries;  by  giving  them  sanitary  knowl- 
edge and  the  free  use  of  books.  The  call,  then,  to  the  earnest  women  gathered 
here  to-day  is  to  share  the  vast  practical  labor  imperatively  and  instantly 
needed  among  Indians,  to  help  provide  the  means  with  which  to  do  this 
work,  and  for  volunteers  to  enter  the  waiting  fields  of  heathenism,  and 
darkness  among  our  own  native  Americans.  *  *  *  For  this  work  the 
Woman's  National  Indian  Association  implores  the  aid  of  all  who  are 
devoted  to  the  emancipation  of  the  race  from  any  thraldom,  social,  civil 
or  political,  and  to  the  elevation  of  women  above  all  disabilities. 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  I^fore  introducing  Clara  Barton,  and  at  her  request, 
we  are  to  have  a  five  minutes'  talk  from  another  lady,  a  representative  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  Mrs.  E.  Florence  Barker. 

THE  WOMAN'S  RELIEF  CORPS. 

Mrs.  Barker.  Mrs.  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  It  is  very 
embarrassing  to  me  to  appear  before  an  audience  on  borrowed  time,  but  I  am 
fortunate  in  finding  in  this  District  of  Columbia  a  woman  who  has  time  to 
let ;  and  this  is  because  she  is  the  busiest  woman  in  the  United  States. 

The  Relief  Corps  dates  its  birth  from  the  hour  the  news  flashed  along  the 
wires,  "Fort  Sumter  fired  upon;  our  stars  and  stripes  lowered;"  as 
with  one  great  throb  of  the  nation's  heart  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
sprang  to  arms  to  hurl  back  the  foe  we  had  nurtured  at  our  very  hearth- 
stones. Who  of  us  will  ever  forget  that  Sabbath,  July  21,  1861,  when  in 
silent  New  England  the  church  bells  called  to  prayer  but  also  to  work,  the 
women  of  this  land  ?  Ere  the  setting  of  the  sun  supplies  were  forwarded 
to  the  hospitals  ? 

In  1878,  Gen.  Horace  Binny  Sargent,  Commander  Department  of  Massa- 
chusetts, was  influenced  by  James  F.  Marsh,    assistant-adjutant  general  of 


102  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  department,  who  fully  recognized  the  grand  work  accomplished  by  the 
women  of  Massachusetts,  to  issue  a  call  for  a  convention.  Securing  the  co- 
operation of  the  ladies  of  Fitchburg,  Mass.,  an  invitation  was  issued  to  every 
auxiliary  in  the  State  to  be  present  at  a  convention  to  be  held  at  the  above- 
named  place.  There  was  organized  the  first  department  of  the  Woman's 
Relief  Corps,  with  Sarah  E.  Fuller,  of  Boston,  the  first  president  W.  R.  C. 
At  the  fifteenth  encampment,  held  at  Indianapolis,  1881,  the  following 
resolutions  were  reported  by  the  committee  and  adopted  : 

"  Resolved,  That  we  approve  of  the  project  entertained  of  organizing  a  Woman's 
National  Relief  Corps. 

"  Resolved,  That  such  Woman's  Relief  Corps  may  use,  under  such  title,  the  words 
'Auxiliary  to  the  G.  A.  R.'-by  special  indorsement  of  the  G.  A.  R." 

During  the  annual  convention  (1883)  °f  tne  Department  of  Massachusetts, 
W.  R.  C,  Commander-in-Chief  Paul  Van  Der  Voort  visited  the  convention, 
and  in  most  emphatic  terms  indorsed  the  movement,  complimenting  the  ladies 
of  Massachusetts  on  having  the  most  perfect  work  he  had  seen,  and  on  their 
earnest  endeavors  for  the  soldier,  assuring  them  that  the  ambition  of  his 
administration  was  that  a  national  organization  should  be  perfected.  *  *  * 
In  general  orders  he  instructed  all  comrades  to  meet  at  Denver,  Col.,  and 
form  a  national  organization. 

In  response  to  this  invitation,  extended  to  every  auxiliary  in  the  Union, 
as  far  as  known,  sixteen  States  were  represented.  After  some  preliminaries 
it  was  unanimously  voted  to  organize  as  a  Woman's  National  Relief  Corps, 
and  take  up  the  work  of  Massachusetts.  The  objects  for  which  we  are 
organized  nationally  are — 

1st.  To  specially  aid  and  assist  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  and  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  their  heroic  dead. 

2d.  To  assist  such  Union  veterans  as  need  our  help  and  protection,  and 
to  extend  needful  aid  to  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who  have  fallen ; 
to  find  them  homes  and  employment,  and  assure  them  of  sympathy  and 
friends ;  to  cherish  and  emulate  the  deeds  of  our  army  nurses  and  all  loyal 
women  who  rendered  loving  service  to  their  country  in  her  hour  of  peril. 

3d.  To  inculcate  lessons  of  patriotism  and  love  of  country  among  our 
children  and  in  the  communities  in  which  we  live ;  to  maintain  true  allegi- 
ance to  the  United  States  of  America ;  to  discountenance  whatever  weakens 
loyalty  and  to  encourage  the  spread  of  universal  liberty  and  equal  rights 
to  all. 

A  communication  was  immediately  sent  to  the  National  Encampment 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  informing  it  of  the  action  taken.  This 
resulted  in  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolution  : 

"  That  we  cordially  hail  the  organization  of  a  National  Relief  Corps,  and  extend 
our  greeting  to  its  members.  We  return  our  warmest  thanks  to  the  loyal  women  of 
the  land  for  their  earnest  support  and  encouragement,  and  bid  them  God-speed 
in  their  patriotic  work. "    *    *    * 


Philanthropies.  103 

Over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  have  been  expended  in  relief  by  the 
Woman's  Relief  Corps  since  the  formation  of  the  National  order.  About 
sixty  thousand  women  have  banded  together  for  this  special  purpose,  and 
obligated  themselves  to  sustain  the  grand  principles  of  fraternity,  charity,  and 
loyalty.  There  are  1,500  corps,  representing  twenty-five  permanent  and  two 
provisional  departments. 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  Miss  Clara  Barton  will  now  speak.  The  flag  of  the  Red 
Cross  at  the  back  of  the  platform  introduces  her  to  you. 

THE    RED  CROSS. 

Miss  Barton.  The  organization  of  the  Red  Cross  is  the  result  of  an 
international  treaty  known  among  nations  as  the  "Treaty  of  Geneva,"  and 
has  for  its  object  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  that  class  of  persons 
who,  in  accordance  with  the  customs  of  mankind  from  the  earliest  history 
to  the  present,  have  been  called  to  maintain  the  boundaries  of  nations  and 
even  national  existence  itself,  by  human  warfare. 

Whether  well  or  ill,  needful  or  needless,  that  nations  and  boundaries  be 
so  preserved,  is  not  a  question  for  me  here  to  consider.  That  they  have 
been,  and  mainly  are  so  preserved,  that  no  better  method  is  yet  consummated, 
and  that,  in  the  progress  of  humanity,  the  existing  countries  of  the  civilized 
world  have  seen  fit  to  enter  into  an  International  Treaty  for  the  betterment 
of  the  conditions  of  those  subjects  or  citizens,  who,  by  their  laws,  are  called 
to  the  performance  of  this  duty,  are  facts  which  I  am  here  to  state.  This 
International  Treaty  of  1864  commences  with  the  neutralizing  of  all  parties 
in  their  efforts  at  relief.  It  brings  to  the  aid  of  the  medical  and  hospital 
departments  of  armies  the  direct,  organized,  and  protected  help  of  the  people. 
It  goes  through  the  entire  category  of  military  medical  regime,  as  practiced 
up  to  its  date;  makes  war  upon  and  plucks  out  its  old-time  barbarities,  its 
needless  restrictions  and  cruelties,  and,  finally,  in  effect,  ends  by  teaching 
war  to  make  war  upon  itself. 

By  its  international  code  all  military  hospitals  under  its  flag  become 
neutral,  and  can  be  neither  attacked  nor  captured.  All  sick  and  wounded 
within  them  remain  unmolested.  Surgeons,  nurses,  chaplains,  attendants 
and  all  non-combatants  at  a  field,  wearing  the  accredited  insignia  of  the 
Red  Cross,  are  protected  from  capture.  Badly  wounded  prisoners  lying 
upon  a  captured  field  are  delivered  up  to  their  own  army,  if  desired.  All 
supplies  designed  for  the  use  of  the  sick  or  wounded  of  either  army,  and 
bearing  the  sign  of  the  Red  Cross,  are  protected  and  held  sacred  to  their 
use.  All  convoys  of  wounded  or  prisoners  in  exchange  are  safely  protected 
in  transit,  and,  if  attacked  from  ambush  or  otherwise  harmed,  an  inter- 
national treaty  is  broken.  All  persons  residing  in  the  vicinity  of  a  battle 
about  to  take  place  shall  be  notified  by  the  generals  commanding  both 
armies,  and   full  protection,  with  a  guard,  assured  each  house  which  shall 


104  International  Council  of  Women. 

open   its  doors  to  the  care  of  the  wounded  from  either  army ;  thus  each 
house  becomes  a  furnished  field  hospital  and  its  inmates  nurses. 

Each  nation  upon  its  accession  to  the  treaty  establishes  a  national  society 
or  committee,  through  which  it  will  act  internationally  in  its  various  relations. 
This  body  corporate  adopts  a  constitution,  in  the  formation  of  which  it 
seeks  the  best  methods  for  serving  humanity  in  general,  together  with  the 
interests  of  its  own  people,  in  the  direction  of  its  legitimate  efforts. 

With  the  exception  of  our  own,  no  national  constitution  has  covered  more 
than  the  direct  ground  of  the  treaty,  viz.,  the  prevention  and  relief  of  suffer- 
ing from  war.  The  framers  of  the  National  Constitution  of  the  Red  Cross 
of  America  foresaw  that  the  great  woes  of  its  people  would  not  be  confined 
to  human  warfare ;  that  the  elements  raging,  unchained,  would  wage  us 
wars  and  face  us  in  battles  ;  that  as  our  vast  territory  became  populated,  and 
people,  in  the  place  of  prairies  and  forests,  should  lie  in  their  track,  these 
natural  agents  might  prove  scarcely  less  destructive  and  more  relentless  than 
human  enemies ;  that  fire,  flood,  famine,  pestilence,  drought,  earthquake 
and  tornado  would  call  for  the  prompt  help  of  the  people  no  less  than  war, 
and  while  organizing  for  the  latter  they  included  also  the  former.  The  rati- 
fying congress  at  Berne  accepted  us  with  that  digression  from  the  original 
purport  of  the  treaty,  and  what  we  term  the  "civil  branch  "  *of  the  Red 
Cross  is  known  abroad  as  the  "American  Amendment." 

With  these  explanations  it  remains  only  to  name  some  of  the  things  accom- 
plished and  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  consequence  of  this  treaty 
during  its  life  of  a  short  quarter  of  a  century.  Previous  to  the  war  of  the 
Crimea  civil  help  for  military  necessities  was  unknown.  Florence  Nightin- 
gale trod  a  pathless  field.  In  the  wars  which  followed,  till  1866,  even  this 
example  was  not  heeded,  and  the  wars  of  Napoleon  III.  in  Northern  Italy 
were  types  of  military  cruelty,  medical  insufficiency,  and  needless  suffering 
which  shocked  the  world.  Out  of  the  smouldering  ashes  of  these  memories 
rose  the  clear,  steady  flame  of  the  Red  Cross;  so  bright  and  beautiful  that  it 
drew  the  gaze  of  all  mankind ;  so  broad  that  it  reached  the  farthest  bound 
of  the  horizon  ;  so  peaceful,  wise,  harmless  and  fraternal  that  all  nations 
and  sects,  the  Christian  and  the  Jew,  the  Protestant  and  the  Catholic,  the 
soldier  and  the  philanthropist,  the  war-maker  and  the  peace-maker,  could 
meet  in  its  softened  rays,  and,  by  its  calm,  holy  light,  reveal  to  each  other 
their  difficulties,  compare  their  views,  study  methods  of  humanity,  and,  from 
time  to  time,  learn  from  and  teach  to  each  other  things  better  than  they  had 
known. 

Our  own  terrible  war,  which  freed  4,000,000  slaves,  had  no  ray  of  this  fra- 
ternal light.  The  great  commissions  rose  and  performed  a  work  of  relief 
hitherto  unknown,  but  from  lack  of  military  recognition  their  best  efforts 
comparatively  failed,  and  from  lack  of  permanent  organization  their  future 
possibilities  were  lost  to  the  world. 


Philanthropies.  105 

With  the  Franco-German  war  of  i87o-'7i  commenced  the  opportunities 
for  the  practical  application  of  the  principles  of  the  treaty.  Both  nations 
were  in  the  compact.  There  was  perfect  accord  between  the  military  and  the 
Red  Cross  Relief.  There  was  neither  medical  nor  hospital  work  save  through 
and  under  the  treaty  of  Geneva.  The  Red  Cross  brassard  flashed  on  the 
arm  of  every  agent  of  relief,  from  the  medical  director  at  the  headquarters 
of  the  king  to  the  little  boy  carrying  water  to  his  wounded  lieutenant ;  from 
the  noble  Empress  Augusta  and  her  court,  and  poor  Eugenie,  while  she  had 
one,  to  the  patient,  tired  nurse  in  the  lowliest  hospital  or  tent  by  the  wayside. 

No  record  of  needless  inhumanity  or  cruelty  to  wounded  or  sick  stains 
the  annals  of  that  war.  I  walked  its  hospitals  day  and  night.  I  served  in 
its  camps,  and  I  marched  with  its  men,  and  know  whereof  I  speak.  The 
German,  the  Frenchman,  the  Italian,  the  Arab,  the  Turco  and  the  Zouave 
were  gathered  tenderly  alike,  and  lay  side  by  side  in  the  Red  Cross  palace 
hospitals  of  Germany.  The  royal  women,  who  to-day  mourn  their  own 
•dead,  mourned  then  the  dead  of  friend  and  foe. 

Since  that  day  no  war  between  nations  within  the  treaty  has  taken  place 
in  which  the  Red  Cross  did  not  stand  at  its  post  at  the  field,  and  the  gen- 
erous gifts  of  neutral  nations  have  filled  its  hands. 

The  treaty  has  brought  the  war-making  powers  to  know  each  other.  Four 
times  it  has  called  the  heads  of  thirty  to  forty  nations  to  meet  through 
appointed  delegates,  and  confer  upon  national  neutrality  and  relief  in  war. 
It  has  created  and  established  one  common  sign  for  all  military  medical 
relief  the  world  over,  and  made  all  under  that  sign  safe  and  sacred.  It  has 
established  one  military  hospital  flag  for  all  nations.  It  has  given  to  the 
people  the  recognized  right  to  reach  and  succor  their  wounded  at  the  field. 
It  has  rendered  impossible  any  insufficiency  of  supplies,  either  medical  or 
nutritive,  for  wounded  or  prisoners  at  any  point  which  human  sympathy  and 
power  can  reach.  It  has  given  the  best  inventions  known  to  science  for  the 
proper  handling  of  mutilated  persons,  whether  soldiers  or  civilians.  The  most 
approved  portable  hospitals  in  the  world  are  those  of  the  Red  Cross.  It  has 
frowned  upon  all  old-time  modes  of  cruelty  in  destructive  warfare  ;  poisoned 
and  explosive  bullets  are  no  longer  popular.  Antiseptic  dressings  and  electric 
lights  at  battle-fields  are  established  facts,  and  the  ambulance  and  stretcher- 
bearers  move  in  the  rear  ranks  of  every  army.  These  isolated  facts  are  only 
the  mountain  peaks  which  I  point  out  to  you.  The  great  Alpine  range  of 
humanity  and  activity  below  can  not  be  shown  in  fifteen  minutes. 

So  much  for  human  warfare  and  the  legitimate  dispensation  of  the  treaty. 

Touching  our  "American  Amendment,"  the  wars  of  the  elements  have 
not  left  us  quite  at  leisure.  Under  our  constitution  are  formed  "Associate 
Societies,"  which  aid  directly  in  providing  the  relief  which  is  dispensed.  It 
being  the  rule  to  aid  only  in  calamities  so  large  or  so  severe  as  to  require 
help  from  the  general  public,  our  societies  are  less  frequently  called  to  act. 
8 


106  International  Council  of  Women. 

They  are  supposed  to  have  reserved  funds  or  material  gathered  and  held  for 
the  purpose  of  supplying  relief  upon  call  from  the  National  Association. 

The  public,  in  general,  to  a  large  extent,  is  coming  to  the  use  of  the  Red 
Cross  as  a  medium  of  conveyance  and  distribution  for  its  contributions. 
The  National  Association,  with  its  headquarters  in  this  city,  has  a  field- 
agent,  who  visits,  in  person,  every  scene  where  aid  is  rendered.  Com- 
mencing with  the  "  forest  fires"  of  Michigan  in  1881,  there  has  fallen  to 
its  hands  a  share  of  the  relief-work  in  the  overflow  of  the  Mississippi  River 
in  1882  ;  of  the  Ohio  in  1883  ;  of  the  Louisiana  cyclone  the  same  year  ;  the 
overflow  of  both  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  in  1884  >  the  representation  of  the 
United  States  Government  at  the  International  Conference  of  Geneva, 
Switzerland,  in  1884;  the  exhibition  of  "woman's  work"  in  the  Red 
Cross,  both  foreign  and  American,  at  the  Exposition  at  New  Orleans  in 
1885  ;  the  drought  in  Texas  in  1886;  the  Charleston  earthquake  in  1886  ;  the 
representation  of  the  United  States  Government  again  at  the  court  of  their 
Royal  Highnesses,  the  Grand  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Baden,  at  Carlsruhe, 
Germany,  in  1887,  and  the  relief  of  the  sufferers  from  the  Mt.  Vernon 
cyclone,  from  which  the  travel  dust  is  still  on  our  garments  and  our  trunks 
are  not  yet  unpacked. 

In  the  overflow  of  the  rivers  in  1884  the  Government  appropriated  $150,- 
000  for  distribution  through  the  War  Department,  and  magnificently  and 
faithfully  was  that  distribution  made — an  honor  to  any  nation. 

The  Red  Cross,  with  no  appropriation  and  no  treasury,  received  from  its 
societies  and  the  public,  and  personally  distributed  in  the  space  of  four 
months,  money  and  material  at  a  moderately  estimated  value  of  $175,- 
000 — an  honor  to  any  people. 

It  will,  I  trust,  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  branch  of  relief  work  is  not 
recognized  by  the  treaty — that  it  is  our  own,  the  first  publication  of  which, 
embodying  the  principles  of  the  present  constitution  for  the  "  relief  of 
national  calamities,"  was  issued  in  pamphlet  form,  entitled  "The  Red 
Cross — What  It  Is,"  to  the  Congress  of  1878,  with  the  valued  assistance  of 
its  efficient  first  secretary,  Mrs.  Hannah  McL.  Shephard,  of  this  city. 

But,  says  one,  what  has  this  war  movement,  this  Red  Cross  treaty, 
to  do  with  real  progress  and  the  bringing  about  of  that  universal  peace 
toward  which  our  eyes  and  hearts  and  hopes  are  turned,  and  for  which  we 
have  so  long  organized,  labored,  and  prayed  ?  It  has,  my  dear  friends,  the 
same,  in  effect,  to  do  with  these  that  suffrage  would  have  to  do  with  woman's 
position  and  advancement ;  the  same  that  prohibition  would  have  to  do 
with  temperance.  Wars  are  largely  the  result  of  unbridled  passions.  That 
universal  treaty,  binding  every  war-making  power  to  wholesome  restraints, 
pledging  it  to  humanity,  and  holding  it  responsible  to  the  entire  world,  is 
the  bit  in  the  mouth,  the  curb  on  the  neck  of  the  war  horse,  and  while  it 
holds  out  the  measure  of  oats  in  the  one  hand  it  carries  the  bridle  in  the 


Philanthropies.  107 

other.  It  constitutes  a  peace  society  which  can  not  be  sneered  at  in 
counsel,  nor  ignored  in  war.  It  is  one  of  the  thresholds  to  the  temple  of 
peace,  but  even  ourselves  may  be  farther  from  the  entrance  than  we  are  wont 
to  fondly  dream.  Wars  are  organized  mobs,  they  tell  us.  We  are  not 
without  that  seed  in  our  own  fair  land  to-day. 

But,  again,  what  has  the  Red  Cross  to  do  with  woman's  work,  and  why 
does  our  Miss  Anthony  give  it  place  here  ?  Because  her  judgment  is  quick 
and  sound,  her  vision  clear  and  strong  and  she  sees  from  afar.  Miss 
Anthony  was  the  first  woman  to  lay  her  hand  beside  mine  in  the  formation 
of  a  Red  Cross  Society  in  her  native  city  of  Rochester,  and  that  society  has 
stood  like  a  rock  through  trouble  and  disaster,  responsive  to  every  call. 
Because  there  are  more  women  than  men  in  the  Red  Cross  of  Europe  to-day. 
Empresses  and  queens  lead  its  societies  and  its  relief  work  in  war,  and  while 
each  queenly  wife  stands  with  her  Red  Cross  hand  on  the  epauletted 
shoulder  of  her  war-meditating  husband,  he  will  consider  well  before  he 
declares.  This  has  been  and  will  be  again  the  case.  Women  have  much 
to  do  with  it,  and  in  the  great  millennial  day,  when  peace  has  conquered 
war,  and  its  standards  float  out  from  the  shining  battlements,  both  women 
and  the  Red  Cross  will  be  there. 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Mrs.  Emily  S.  Rich- 
ards, the  delegate  of  the  Women's  Relief  Associations  for  the  Territory  of 
Utah. 

women's  relief  associations. 

Mrs.  Richards.  The  Women's  Relief  Society  now  existing  in  Utah, 
with  branches  in  Idaho,  Wyoming,  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Nevada,  Col- 
orado, Europe,  New  Zealand,  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  other  places,  was 
organized  at  Nauvoo,  111.,  March  17,  1842.  Its  objects  were  the  relief  of 
the  poor  and  afflicted,  the  instruction  of  its  members  in  moral,  philoso- 
phical and  religious  principles,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  rights  of 
women  in  all  departments  of  society.  A  president  and  two  counselors, 
sustained  by  the  votes  of  the  members,  are  in  charge  of  the  whole  so- 
ciety. A  secretary  and  treasurer,  also  assistant  and  corresponding  secre- 
taries are  associated  with  them  in  the  general  management.  Each  branch  is 
organized  in  a  similar  manner  and  has  an  independent  existence,  and  yet  all 
are  associated  under  the  general  presidency.  Utah  is  ecclesiastically  divided 
into  departments  corresponding,  usually,  with  the  respective  counties.  Each 
organization  of  that  kind  is  called  a  "  Stake  of  Zion,"  and  each  stake  is  sub- 
divided into  wards,  corresponding  with  the  small  towns  or  villages.  Large 
towns  are  divided  into  a  number  of  wards.  Each  ward  has  a  relief  society, 
with  its  president  and  two  counselors,  secretary,  and  treasurer.  These  soci- 
eties are  composed  of  women  exclusively,  who  hold  semi-monthly  meetings 
and  conduct  their  own  business  affairs.  They  deliver  medical,  historical, 
and  scientific  lectures  and  addresses  on  various  subjects,  do  needle-work, 


108  International  Council  of  Women. 

make  arrangements  for  visiting  the  sick  and  relieving  the  wants  of  the  poor 
in  their  respective  wards,  collect  funds,  make  reports,  and  keep  full  minutes 
of  their  doings  and  accounts  of  their  finances.  Teachers  visit  periodically 
the  members  at  their  homes.     *     *     * 

There  are  now  four  hundred  relief  societies  in  and  out  of  Utah,  with  a 
total  membership  of  22,000.  They  own  many  of  the  halls  in  which  they 
meet,  and  such  property  is  valued  at  $95,000.  They  have  laid  up  wheat  in 
granaries  to  the  amount  of  32,000  bushels,  for  seed  or  relief  in  case  of  scarc- 
ity. They  assist  in  caring  for  the  distressed,  help  to  wait  upon  the  sick,  and 
prepare  the  deceased  for  burial.  They  have  a  biweekly  paper  called  the 
Woman's  Exponent,  with  women  as  editors,  writers,  business  agents  and 
'Compositors.  Its  columns  are  devoted  to  any  and  every  subject  specially 
relating  to  women.  The  Deseret  Hospital,  with  a  lady  M.  D.  as  principal, 
and  skilled  nurses  and  attendants,  is  under  their  direction.  They  have  fos- 
tered the  silk  industry,  producing  the  raw  material  and  manufacturing  it 
into  various  articles.  Some  of  the  relief  societies  have  stores  for  the  sale  of 
inaerchandise,  particularly  home  manufactures,  as  they  encourage  industry  as 
■well  as  intellectual  culture.  The  entire  organization  is  a  live,  active,  and 
growing  institution,  and  its  benefits  are  felt  in  every  place  where  it  extends, 
all  its  tendencies  being  to  make  women  useful,  progressive,  independent 
and  happy. 

The  Young  Ladies'  Mutual  Improvement  Association  is  organized  in  a 
similar  manner  to  the  Women's  Relief  Society.  It  has  a  general  presidency, 
with  stake  and  ward  organizations  extending  almost  as  far  as  the  relief  soci- 
eties. But  it  is  composed  of  younger  ladies,  married  and  unmarried,  who 
are  associated  for  mutual  benefit.  They  hold  weekly  meetings,  managed  by 
themselves,  and  have  their  stake  and  general  conference,  in  which  they  vote 
for  their  own  officers  and  attend  to  their  own  association  business.  They 
compose  and  read  essays,  edit  their  own  manuscript  papers,  recite,  sing,  dis- 
cuss various  subjects  relating  to  women's  duties,  rights,  privileges  and  respon- 
sibilities, hear  medical  and  physiological  lectures,  and  engage  in  religious 
services.  At  stated  periods  the  Associations  meet  with  the  Young  Men's 
Mutual  Improvement  Societies,  which  are  organized  in  a  similar  manner. 
The  organ  of  these  young  people  is  the  Contributor.  The  motto  of  the 
magazine  and  of  those  it  represents  is,  "The  Glory  of  God  is  Intel- 
ligence." There  are  350  of  these  Young  Ladies'  Associations,  with  a  mem- 
bership of  8,200.  Their  effects  in  promoting  independent  thought  and 
awakening  an  interest  in  useful  knowledge  among  the  young  people  of  the 
Territory  are  marked  and  of  infinite  value  to  society. 

The  women  of  Utah  have  organized  the  children,  apart  from  their  day  and 
Sunday-schools,  into  associations,  which  are  called  Primaries.  Each  ward 
association  has  officers  similar  to  those  of  the  other  societies  described,  and 
also  stake  and  general  presidencies.     The  boys  and  girls  who  are  enrolled 


Philanthropies.  109 

as  members  have  their  regular  weekly  meetings.  They  are  taught  to  conduct 
meetings  and  speak  in  public.  They  are  visited  occasionally  by  the  ladies 
of  the  older  societies,  but  the  organization  is  distinct  from  all  others,  and  the 
ladies  controlling  it  manage  all  its  affairs.  There  are  360  primary  associa- 
tions in  Utah,  with  a  membership  of  25,000. 

Faith  in  God  animates  the  women  who  work  in  these  societies  in  all  their 
exertions,  which  are  entirely  gratuitous.  They  are  purely  and  truly  labors 
of  love.  We  desire  the  universal  spread  of  truth  and  the  diffusion  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  for  the  enlightenment,  development  and  elevation  of  our  sex, 
and  the  ultimate  redemption  of  the  whole  human  race. 

After  the  singing  of  the  hymn,  "  The  New  America,"  the 
meeting  adjourned. 


TUESDAY,  MAECH  27;  1888. 

EVENING  SESSION. 
TEMPERANCE. 


Miss  Anthony  presiding.     Invocation,  Judith  Ellen  Foster. 
Miss  Anthony.     Miss  Frances  Willard  needs  no  introduction  to  you. 

WOMAN    IN   TEMPERANCE. 

Miss  Willard.  Dear  Friends  :  These  kind  sisters  who  made  out  the  pro- 
gramme, in  the  first  instance,  gave  me  half  an  hour,  but  I  had  so  many 
women  of  our  own  to  present  whom  you  have  not  heard  that  I  subdivided 
the  time,  as  I  have  spoken  in  Washington  a  great  deal.  I  wanted  the  light 
to  twinkle  on  you  from  many  a  star  of  the  White-Ribboned  host,  so  I  will 
stop  when  my  time  is  up. 

We  are  to  think  to-night  about  the  temperance  reform  in  its  modern 
phases,  for  it  has  had  many  phases.  I  ask  you  to  remember  that  while  I 
might  speak  on  another  occasion  about  the  temperance  reform  as  such,  I  am 
bound  by  the  conditions  of  our  programme  to  speak  especially — and  so  are 
we  all  to-night — of  women  and  temperance.  Of  course  I  can  tell  best  about 
what  I^know  most  of,  and  I  know  what  the  women  have  done,  and  what  tem- 
perance has  done  for  them.  This  work,  in  these  fourteen  years,  has  devel- 
oped the  brain  of  woman  as  no  schooling  ever  did  before,  has  broadened 
the  sympathy  of  her  heart  until  it  takes  in  all  humanity,  has  educated  her 
will  until  it  has  become  a  mighty  power,  and  has  exalted  to  supreme  heights 
her  faith  in  God. 

The  woman's  temperance  crusade  had  for  its  object  the  enthronement  of 
Christ's  spirit  in  the  world,  in  its  customs,  its  habits  and  its  legislation. 
We  have  for  one  motto,  "  No  sectarianism  in  religion."  We  have  for 
another,  "  No  sectionalism  in  politics."  We  have  for  a  third,  "  No  sex  in 
citizenship,"  and  besides  all  these  we  have  our  grand,  inclusive  motto  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  "  For  God  and  home  and  every  land." 

I  have  seen  upon  a  platform  that  which,  perhaps,  is  more  remarkable  than 
what  you  see  upon  this  one.  I  have  beheld  a  Jew  and  a  Catholic  minister 
seated  side  by  side  with  a  Methodist,  Unitarian,  Universalist  and  Baptist, 
all  in  the  utmost  harmony,  all  with  the  kindest  good-will.  And  when  I  saw 
that  I  said,  "  God  bless  a  cause  which  can  bring  those  who  differ  so  widely 
upon  one  platform  to  utter  the  one  sacred  thought  of  the  fight  for  a  clear 
brain  and  a  steady-beating  pulse,  a  protected  home  and  a  redeemed 
America." 


Temperance.  Ill 

Going  to  the  South  on  five  different  trips,  traveling  and  speaking  in  a 
hundred  towns  and  cities,  I  have  found  that,  although  sectionalism  may  be 
a  live  issue  to  some,  it  is  a  dead  lion  to  the  White-Ribboners,  and  in  its 
skeleton  they  have  found  the  honeycomb  of  reconciliation  and  sisterly  good- 
will. 

I  believe  that  whatever  may  come  out  of  this  mighty  conflict,  in  which 
woman  and  temperance  are  so  largely  synonymous,  there  is  to  come  "  no  sex 
in  citizenship."  I  believe  that  we  are  to  find  that  since  the  ballot  is  the 
emblem  of  power,  since  majorities  must  decide  what  the  law  shall  be,  we 
want  woman  as  a  voter  and  as  a  law-maker. 

Law  depends  on  the  decisions  of  majorities.  Majorities  of  women  are 
against  the  saloon.  A.s  you  can  not  bring  to  bear  the  power  of  steam  except 
through  an  engine,  as  you  can  not  bring  to  bear  the  power  of  electricity 
except  through  a  battery,  so  I  believe  you  can  not  bring  to  bear  the  power 
of  the  home  and  church  forces  of  this  nation  on  the  saloon  except  at  the 
point  where,  by  the  correlation  of  governmental  forces  in  a  republic,  public 
opinion  and  ballots  decide  candidates  and  officers,  and  you  have  enforce- 
ment as  well  as  law. 

You  are  told  that  public  opinion  seems  to  demand  the  saloon,  and  as  a 
White-Ribboner  I  ask,  "Whose  public  opinion  ?  That  of  the  home?  "  "Oh, 
no;  the  home  is  against  it."  "  Whose  public  opinion  ?  That  of  the  church  ?" 
"  Oh,  no  ;  two-thirds  of  the  church  is  made  up  of  women."  "  Whose  public 
opinion?"  That  of  men  who  drink  and  men  who  sell,  and  men  in  profes- 
sional, business  and  political  life  who  don't  like  to  get  the  ill-will  of  those 
other  classes.  This  is  the  outcome  of  deliberate  choice,  based  upon  motives 
wholly  selfish.  These  men  have  saddled  the  liquor  traffic  on  this  nation. 
But  the  nation  has  great  guns  of  power  pointing  sublimely  up  into  vacancy. 
We  want  to  bring  them  to  the  level  of  our  use,  and  send  their  shot  banging 
into  the  eyes  of  the  foe.  It  is  this  purpose  of  arming  woman  with  the  ballot 
that  makes  me  so  perfectly  at  home  on  a  platform  like  the  present.  It  is  this 
which  brings  me  to  do  homage  to  those  grand  pioneers,  just  as  you  do,  and 
no  one  can  pay  them  too  much  gratitude  and  honor. 

I  remember  at  this  hour  the  very  first  time  I  ever  spoke  in  Rochester,  in 
Corinthian  Hall,  in  1875.  I  then,  for  the  first  time,  met  Susan  B.  Anthony, 
at  tea  in  the  home  of  a  mutual  friend,  and  I  learned,  as  everybody  does  who 
knows  how  true  and  loyal-hearted  is  that  woman,  to  love  and  honor  her. 
£Great  applause.]  1  would  be  glad  to  have  any  amount  of  time  taken  up  in 
demonstrations  of  that  character.  We  had  started  to  go  into  the  hall  from 
the  ante-room,  when  Miss  Anthony  said  to  me  :  "I  think  I  had  better  not 
go  in  with  you  ;  you  are  just  beginning ;  you  have  your  reputation  to  make, 
and  some  people  are  afraid  of  the  unpopular  ideas  I  represent.  I  will  go  in 
by  this  side  door,  and  they  will  never  know  that  you  were  with  me." 

It  touched  my  heart,  her  sisterly  thought  of  me  in  my  new  position,  and 


112  International  Council  of  Women. 

I  was  not  then  as  thoroughly  indoctrinated  as  I  am  now.  I  thought  of 
it  rejoicingly  to-night,  as  I  was  to  come  forward  under  her  auspices,  with  her 
benediction  on  my  head  ;  how  times  had  changed  !  I  thought  how  fitting  it 
is  that  the  forces  of  womanhood  should  unite  themselves  under  the  guiding 
star  of  the  woman's  ballot  in  the  hands  of  these  brave  pioneers,  and  I  believe 
the  splendid  marching  army  of  the  womanhood  of  the  world  shall  thus  go 
forth  to  conquer. 

Let  us  be  grateful  that  our  horizon  is  widening.  We  women  have  learned 
to  reason  from  effect  to  cause.  It  is  considered  a  fine  sign  of  a  thinker  to  be 
able  to  reason  from  cause  to  effect.  But  we,  in  fourteen  years'  march,  have 
learned  to  go  from  the  drunkard  in  the  gutter,  who  was  the  object  lesson  we  first 
saw,  back  to  the  children,  as  you  will  hear  to-night ;  back  to  the  idea  of  pre- 
ventive, educational,  evangelistic,  social,  and  legal  work  for  temperance  ; 
back  to  the  basis  of  the  saloon  itself.  We  have  found  that  the  liquor  traffic 
is  joined  hand  in  hand  with  the  very  sources  of  the  National  Government. 
And  we  have  come  to  the  place  where  we  want  prohibition,  first,  last,  and  all 
the  time.  We  see  that  while  the  brewer  talks  about  his  "  vested  interests  " 
there  are  other  vested  interests.  And  I  speak  to  you  to-night,  and  these  other 
women  who  follow  me  will  speak,  on  behalf  of  vested  interests,  while  we  lend 
our  voices  to  the  motherhood  of  the  nation  that  has  gone  down  into  the  valley 
of  unutterable  pain  and  in  the  shadow  of  death,  with  the  dews  of  eternity 
upon  the  mother's  brow,  given  birth  and  being  to  the  sons  who  are  the 
*'  vested  interests  "  of  America's  homes. 

We  offset  the  demand  of  the  brewer  and  distiller,  that  you  shall  protect 
their  ill-gotten  gains,  with  the  thought  of  these  most  sacred  treasures,  dear  to 
the  hearts  that  you,  our  brothers,  honor  ;  dear  to  the  hearts  that  you  love 
best.  I  bring  to  you  this  thought  to-night,  that  you  shall  vote  to  represent 
us,  and  hasten  the  time  when  we  can  represent  ourselves. 

I  will  not  tax  you  longer,  because  so  many  are  to  follow  me ;  gracious, 
and  lovely  women,  who  have  given  their  lives  in  these  last  years  to  the  spe- 
cialties of  our  work.  You  will  hear  from  young  women,  you  will  hear  from 
women  in  the  plenitude  of  their  strength  ;  you  will  learn  how  many-sided  is 
the  battle  in  the  great  society  of  forty  different  departments,  officered  by 
forty  women  in  the  nation,  each  with  an  auxiliary  helper  in  each  State,  and 
that  woman  with  a  helper  in  each  local  union  of  the  ten  thousand  unions. 
We  have  our  work  systematized  and  planned.  We  had  to  sharpen  our  weapons 
on  the  plain  and  in  full  sight  of  the  enemy,  but  they  are  beginning  now  to 
come  to  a  fine  edge.  We  had  to  learn  what  not  to  do  as  well  as  what  to  do. 
We  have  learned  by  the  logic  of  defeat  and  the  argument  of  events,  to  come 
ourselves  to  that  blessed  thought  of  total  abstinence  as  the  cardinal  doctrine 
of  the  whole  movement  and  the  natural  corollary  of  prohibitory  law. 

We  honor  Senator  Blair,  who  has  stood  so  true  and  loyal  for  this  cause ; 
who  has  seen,  as  we  have,  that  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  women  must  be  one 


Temperance.  113 

of  the  weapons  of  this  warfare ;  who  has  seen  that  we  must  have  a  national 
prohibitory  amendment,  so  that  we  can  ground  our  principles  in  the  organic 
law  of  the  highest  legislature  of  the  land ;  thus  making  the  liquor  traffic  an 
Esau,  an  Ishinaelite  and  a  social  Pariah  in  this  nation.  We  come  bringing 
the  most  radical  thoughts,  because  we  have  learned  them  from  what  we  have 
suffered  from  fighting  on  the  very  border  line  of  progress,  on  the  very  picket 
outpost  of  the  army,  not  promising  where  we  shall  be  to-morrow.  We  shall 
be  where  we  are  carried  forward  by  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  which  we  invoke  in 
steadfast  faith  and  prayer  that  it  may  show  us  what  is  the  truth  of  God.  We 
welcome  to  our  communion  all  good  and  earnest-hearted  women.  As  Eliza- 
beth Barrett  Browning  said,  you  must  pass  along  any  truth,  anything  sacred, 
like  bread  at  sacrament. 

I  feel,  as  I  think  of  the  broadening,  blessed  work  of  this  society,  the  truth 
of  our  Quaker  poet  Whittier's  words  : 

"  Where'er  amid  the  ages  rise  the  altars  of  self-sacrifice, 
Where  love  its  arms  hath  opened  wide  and  man  for  man  hath  freely  died, 
I  see  the  same  white  wings  outspread  that  hovered  o'er  my  Master's  head." 

Going  outside  our  denominational  boundaries  meant  going  out  on  the  great 
street,  where  we  elbowed  the  multitude  and  where  we  found  what  an  immense 
amount  of  good  there  was  in  other  folks  beside  ourselves.  For  one  it  made 
me  none  the  less  loyal  and  tender  toward  my  hearthstone  and  the  church, 
and  I  believe  that  that  has  been  the  effect  with  all  of  us.  I  believe  that  we 
are  going  out  into  this  work,  being  schooled  and  inspired  for  greater  things 
than  we  have  dreamed,  and  that  the  esprit  de  corps  of  women  will  prove  the 
grandest  sisterhood  the  world  has  ever  known.  As  I  have  seen  the  love  and 
kindness  and  good-will  of  women  who  differed  so  widely  from  us  politically 
and  religiously,  and  yet  have  found  away  down  in  the  depths  of  their  hearts 
the  utmost  love  and  affection,  I  have  said,  what  kind  of  a  world  will  this  be 
when  all  women  are  as  fond  of  each  other  as  we  strong-minded  women  are? 

So,  friends,  as  I  think  of  the  new  America,  the  good  time  coming,  when 
He  who  is  the  best  friend  that  woman  ever  knew,  the  Christ  of  God,  when 
He  shall  rule  in  our  hearts  and  lives,  not  outwardly,  but  by  His  spirit — 
as  I  think  of  it  all  I  say  to  myself,  I  am  glad  I  am  alive,  I  am  glad  I  was  not 
alive  till  this  last  part  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  I  am  glad  I  shall  be  alive 
when  the  golden  hinges  turn  and  roll  wide  open  the  door  of  the  Twentieth 
Century  that  shall  let  the  women  in  ;  when  this  big-hearted  brotherhood  of 
broad-shouldered  men  who  have  made  it  possible  for  us  to  have  such  a  Coun- 
cil as  this,  who  listen  to  us  and  are  more  pleased  with  us  than  we  are  with  our- 
selves— and  that  is  saying  a  great  deal — and  who,  if  we  write  a  book  that  is 
interesting,  or  a  song,  or  make  a  speech,  just  say,  "  That  is  good  ;  go  on,  and 
do  better  next  time;  we  will  buy  your  books  and  listen  to  your  speeches  " — 
when  these  men  shall  see  that  it  was  not  to  the  harm  of  the  home,  but  for  its 
good,  that  we  were  working  for  temperance  and  for  the  ballot. 


114  International  Council  of  Women. 

Home  is  the  citadel  of  everything  that  is  good  and  pure  on  earth  ;  nothing 
must  enter  there  to  defile,  neither  anything  which  loveth  or  maketh  a  lie. 
And  it  shall  be  found  that  all  society  needed  to  make  it  altogether  home- 
like was  the  home  folks;  that  all  government  needed  to  make  it  altogether 
pure  from  the  fumes  of  tobacco  and  the  debasing  effects  of  strong  drink,  was 
the  home  folks  ;  that. wherever  you  put  a  woman  who  has  the  atmosphere  of 
home  about  her,  she  brings  in  the  good  time  of  pleasant  and  friendly  rela- 
tionship and  points  with  the  finger  of  hope  and  the  eye  of  faith  always  to 
something  better — always  it  is  better  further  on.  As  I  look  around  and  see 
the  heavy  cloud  of  apathy  under  which  so  many  still  are  stifled,  who  take  no 
interest  in  these  things,  I  just  think  they  do  not  half  mean  the  hard  words 
that  they  sometimes  speak  to  us,  or  they  wouldn't  if  they  knew;  and,  after 
awhile,  they  will  have  the  same  views  I  have,  spell  them  with  a  capital  V, 
and  all  be  harmonious,  like  Barnum's  Happy  Family,  a  splendid  menagerie 
of  the  whole  human  race — clear-eyed,  kind  and  victorious  ! 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  present  to  you  the  delegate  and  American  Secre- 
tary of  the  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  Hannah  Whitall 
Smith,  of  Philadelphia. 

THE  LATEST  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  W.  C.  T.  U. 

Mrs.  Smith.  While  scientists  are  quarreling  over  the  evolution  of  the 
past,  the  women  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  are  trying  to 
help  on  the  evolution  of  the  present.  Every  year,  every  month,  every  day 
almost,  this  great  organization  is  evolving  new  ideas,  new  plans,  and  new 
strength.  One  of  the  latest  and  grandest  of  all  its  evolutions  is  the  World's 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  This  organization  is  intended  to  be 
a  world-wide  federation  of  all  women  interested  in  temperance  or  social 
purity  or  any  other  form  of  Christian,  philanthropic,  or  reformatory  work, 
without  respect  to  nationality,  class,  or  creed. 

Far-sighted  philanthropists  are  looking  toward  a  time  in  the  distant  future 

when  the  words  of  the  poet  shall  be  fulfilled,  and 

"  The  war-drums  throb  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags  be  furled 
In  the  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the  world." 

The  idea  of  this  World's  Union  of  women  first  came  to  Miss  Willard  when 
working  in  California  in  1883.  Invisible  cords  seemed  to  draw  her  heart  out 
toward  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  Japan,  and  urgent  representations  were 
made  to  her  of  the  blessings  she  might  carry  to  these  distant  lands,  and  there 
opened  out  before  her  inward  eye  the  vision  of  a  White-Ribbon  sisterhood, 
clasping  hands  the  whole  world  round,  and  carrying  everywhere  its  message 
of  temperance,  purity  and  peace. 

This  vision  began  to  be  realized  in  1884,  when,  at  our  annual  convention, 
held  in  Detroit,  Miss  Willard,  in  her  address,  urged  upon  us  the  formation 
of  a  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  One  courageous  woman 
was  found  there  who  offered  herself  for  a  round-the-world  organizing  tour — 


Temperance.  115 

Mary  Clement  Leavitt,  of  Boston;  and  when  told  that  she  would  have  to  take 
all  the  financial  risks  upon  herself,  as  there  was  no  money  provided,  she 
bravely  declared  that  she  was  not  afraid  to  go  out  on  faith.  She  has  now 
been  out  four  years  and  all  her  wants  have  been  amply  supplied.  She  has 
organized  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  New  Zealand,  Australia,  Japan  and 
China.  She  is  now  in  India  and  expecting  to  go  thence  to  Madagascar, 
Africa,  Asia  Minor,  and  wherever  else  she  can  find  the  smallest  open  door. 
Everywhere  she  has  met  with  the  most  cordial  reception,  and  has  always  left 
behind  her  a  branch  of  our  World's  Union. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  the  third  annual  report  of  the  Hawaiian  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union,  and  there  I  read  that  there  are  already  thirty-two 
unions  among  the  native  women  on  the  islands  of  Oahu,  Mani,  Molokai, 
and  Hawaii.  The  "Health  Primer,"  prepared  by  Mary  H.  Hunt,  of  Bos- 
ton, has  been  translated  and  published  in  the  Hawaiian  language  for  use  in 
the  native  schools.  This  is  also  being  done  in  Japan,  and  other  countries 
are  in  treaty  with  Mrs.  Hunt  in  regard  to  it. 

Other  organizers  besides  Mrs.  Leavitt  are  now  in  the  field.  Madam  Ander- 
son Meyerhelm,  of  Stockholm,  is  at  work  in  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Russia, 
and  Miss  Gray,  of  England,  is  working  in  Switzerland,  Scotland,  and  Ger- 
many. Everywhere  the  deepest  interest  is  manifested.  The  women  of  the 
world  are  waking  from  their  sleep  of  ages  and  need  only  the  helping  hand  of 
their  more  favored  sisters  to  enable  them  to  rise  up  and  join  the  great  army 
who  are  moving  on  to  woman's  peaceful  emancipation  and  victories. 

In  1886  the  British  Woman's  Temperance  Association  came  into  our  fed- 
eration, and  its  president,  Mrs.  Margaret  Bright  Lucas,  the  sister  of  the 
famous  John  Bright,  M.  P.,  was  made  the  President  of  the  World's  Union 
for  the  two  years  following.  The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of 
the  United  States  has  proved,  beyond  the  possibility  of  question,  that  the 
existence  of  a  common  organization,  binding  together  a  large  extent  of  coun- 
try, is  of  great  advantage  in  transmitting  from  one  place  to  another  sugges- 
tions for  work,  and  help  in  carrying  out  these  suggestions.  It  is  obvious 
that  a  World's  Woman's.Christian  Temperance  Union  must  necessarily  mul- 
tiply this  effectiveness  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  its  organization.  It  will 
provide  a  world  wide  net-work  by  which  temperance  and  social  reformers 
of  every  nation  may  communicate  with  one  another,  and  be  enabled  to  help 
each  other. 

A  petition  has  been  prepared  by  the  World's  Union  that  is  to  be  translated 
into  the  language  of  every  nation  and  circulated  in  every  country,  praying 
the  men  convened  in  all  their  great  legislative  assemblies  and  represented  by 
their  potentates  for  protection  and  deliverance  for  themselves  and  their  chil- 
dren from  the  twin  curses  of  the  liquor  traffic  and  the  opium  trade.  This 
petition  is  to  be  signed  by  at  least  one  million  women,  and,  when  finished, 
will  be  carried  by  a  deputation  to  every  government  of  the  world  in  turn, 


116  International  Council  of  Women. 

beginning  with  our  own  Congress  and  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Already 
thousands  of  signatures  have  been  secured  in  many  different  countries.  In 
Ceylon  alone  16,000  natives  signed  it  in  a  few  weeks. 

The  World's  Union  will  be  also  a  great  protective  agency  encircling  the 
world  for  the  saving  of  the  boys  and  girls  who  are  annually  scattering  them- 
selves over  every  quarter  of  the  globe  in  search  of  work  or  of  education. 
A  very  touching  illustration  of  the  value  of  this  department  is  an  incident 
which  happened  to  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Willard,  in  Chicago,  a  few  years  ago.  A 
poor  woman  came  to  her  one  day  in  great  distress  over  a  wayward,  runaway 
son,  who  had  wandered  to  St.  Louis  and  was,  she  had  heard,  ill  in  a  den  of 
infamy  there.  The  mother  was  in  despair.  "  What  shall  I  do  ?  "  she  cried. 
"  I  have  no  money  to  go  to  St.  Louis  myself,  and  I  have  no  friends  there. 
What  shall  I  do  ?"  "Oh,"  replied  Mrs.  Willard,  "  it  will  be  all  right.  I 
will  write,  if  you  like,  to  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  there, 
and  they  will  look  up  your  boy."  The  grateful  mother  accepted  the  offer, 
and  the  letter  was  sent  that  day.  The  Union  in  St.  Louis  were  true  to  their 
mission,  and  the  boy  was  rescued,  and  finally  restored  to  his  mother.  When 
she  came  again  to  see  Mrs.  Willard,  with  tears  of  joy  streaming  from  her 
eyes,  she  said  :  "Oh,  Mrs.  Willard,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union  is  like  a  million  mothers  all  over  the  land."  And 
so  it  is.  Some  one  has  said  that  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union 
is  only  organized  mother-love.  If,  then,  not  only  the  one  million  but  the 
many  millions  of  mother  hearts  all  over  the  world  can  but  be  organized 
through  this  federation  into  a  united  band  for  saving  the  children,  what  mar- 
velous results  we  shall  surely  see  ! 

It  is  also  intended  to  make  this  World's  Union  a  means  of  influencing  inter- 
national questions  that  affect  social  reforms  between  different  countries. 
There  is  a  work  to  be  done  in  this  direction  in  improving  the  extradition 
treaties  as  occasion  arises,  and  in  bringing  pressure  to  bear  against  the  forc- 
ing of  stimulants  and  narcotics  upon  savage  and  semi -civilized  communities. 
As  the  uncivilized  portion  of  the  world  is  at  present  in  the  course  of  being 
rapidly  divided  under  the  nominal  sovereignty  of  the  great  powers,  this  is 
exactly  the  time  when  prompt  action  ought  to  be  taken  to  force  every  govern- 
ment to  protect  these  helpless  people  from  the  curse  of  the  liquor  traffic.  I 
would  say,  in  conclusion,  that  all  women's  societies  can  freely  come  into 
this  world-wide  federation,  for  it  is  not  intended  that  it  shall  control  in  any 
way  the  plans  of  any  society,  but  that  it  shall  simply  unite  them  all  into  one 
common  organization,  for  the  better  furtherance  of  the  purpose  that  ani- 
mates each. 

Miss  Anthony.  Our  next  speaker  comes  from  Canada,  Mrs.  Bessie  Starr 
Keefer,  delegate  of  the  Toronto  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

Mrs.  Keefer.  I  have  heard  a  great  deal  since  I  came  to  Washington 
about  every  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  but  nothing  whatever  concern- 


Temperance.  117 

ing  Canada,  except  a  little  bit  about  its  codfish,  and  I  am  beginning  to  feel 
as  though  .you  imagine  we  are  pretty  small  people  across  the  line ;  but  we  are 
not.  I  found  that  fifteen  years  ago  there  was  no  college  here  in  the  United 
States  where  I  could  get  a  university  education,  so  I  had  to  step  across  the 
line;  and  when  I  had  been  there  for  some  time  I  decided  to  live  across  the 
line,  and  that  is  the  way  I  came  to  be  a  Canadian.  I  am  proud  to  be  a  Canadian 
when  I  begin  to  talk  temperance,  because  we  have  in  Canada  more  prohibi- 
tion, comparatively,  than  any  other  nation  on  the  globe.  True,  we  suffered 
a  defeat  not  very  long  ago  at  the  Halton  election.  I  wonder  if  you  know 
what  we  mean  by  the  Halton  election  ? 

We  Canadians  some  time  ago  had  been  petitioning  the  government,  con- 
tinually troubling  them,  for  a  prohibitory  law,  and  they  said,  we  won't  give 
you  what  you  are  asking  for,  but  we  will  give  you  this  Scott  act,  which  you 
can  take  and  see  what  you  can  do  throughout  your  country,  and  if  you  can 
get  a  majority  of  the  counties  in  the  Dominion  to  carry  the  Scott  act  we 
will  give  you  prohibition.  That  is  the  way  the  politicians  talk.  We  are 
waiting  for  the  promise  to  be  fulfilled,  for  we  carried  the  Scott  act  in  five- 
ninths  of  the  counties  of  the  Dominion,  and  we  carried  it  in  some  other  of 
the  counties,  but  still  we  didn't  get  a  prohibitory  law.  Every  now  and  then 
the  liquor  party  go  to  work  and  try  to  overset  the  Scott  act,  for  that  Canada 
temperance  act  allows  that  every  three  years  a  repeal  vote  can  be  tried. 
Year  after  year  they  have  tried  it  with  some  of  the  counties,  but  this  is  the 
first  time  it  has  been  successful.     This  time  in  Halton. 

When  the  act  was  passed  six  years  ago,  it  was  by  a  majority  of  only  eighty. 
Three  years  later  the  liquor  party  attempted  a  repeal,  and  they  brought 
their  best  men — with  a  note  of  interrogation  after  best — into  the  country; 
they  brought  them  from  the  United  States  and  England,  and  they  spent  an 
immense  amount  of  money  in  Halton  County,  but  we  carried  the  Scott  act ; 
we  carried  the  vote  against  repeal  by  a  majority  of  an  hundred  and  eighty. 
So  this  year  they  again  demanded  a  repeal.  They  had  learned  some  lessons  ; 
they  did  not  import  speakers,  nor  use  any  of  the  men  we  had  in  our  own 
country;  nor  did  they  approve  this  time  of  public  agitation,  for  they  had 
learned  that  the  more  this  matter  was  discussed  the  worse  it  was  for  them. 
So  they  worked  in  an  underhand  way,  and  we,  somehow  or  other,  have  lost 
the  Scott  act  in  Halton  County.  Then  the  people  all  over  the  country 
talked  as  if  we  were  defeated.  I  don't  know  how  the  men  felt ;  they  looked 
pretty  blue  after  it.  But  we  temperance  women  are  made  of  india-rubber. 
So  we  don't  feel  a  bit  discouraged,  but  are  really  beginning  to  think  that 
that  defeat  of  the  Scott  act  was  the  very  best  thing  that  could  occur  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  because  I  am  afraid  some  of  us  were  beginning  to  feel 
a  little  bit  satisfied  with  the  law.  It  was  the  best  we  had,  but  it  was  a  very 
imperfect  measure  ;  and  now  we  shall  agitate  for  something  that  means  a  good 
deal  more.     *     *     * 


118  International  Council  of  Women. 

When  we  demanded  that  the  sufrage  be  extended  to  married  women  one 
of  our  members  in  the  House  rose  and  said  :  "  We  must  look  at  that  question 
from  all  sides  to  see  just  what  those  women  mean."  The  extension  of  the 
municipal  suffrage,  mind  you;  it  wasn't  the  political  suffrage.  "  The  exten- 
sion of  the  municipal  suffrage  means  immediate  prohibition."  And  then,  to 
my  great  astonishment,  the  grand,  splendid  temperance  men  of  ours  in  the 
legislature  voted  against  our  measure  and  thus  against  immediate  prohibition. 

T        V         * 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  present  to  you  one  of  our  youngest  and  most  faith- 
ful girls,  who  is  everything  to  Miss  Willard  and  everything  to  the  cause — 
Miss  Anna  Gordon. 

HOW   TO    REACH    THE    CHILDREN. 

Miss  Gordon.  The  work  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union 
for  the  childhood  of  this  nation  is  fourfold  :  (i.)  Through  the  free  kinder- 
gartens which  our  societies  are  establishing,  where  the  child  is  so  early  guided 
into  paths  of  pure  living.  (2.)  Through  the  Sunday-schools  of  nearly  all 
denominations,  where  young  people  are  taught  that  this  body  is  the  "  Temple 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  poisons  have  no  place  there.  (3.)  Through  scien- 
tific temperance  teaching  in  the  public  schools.  (4.)  And,  lastly,  through 
the  distinct  juvenile  organization  which  we  call  the  Loyal  Temperance 
Legion. 

We  can  not  be  too  thankful  for  the  grand  advance  step  in  temperance 
legislation  by  which,  in  so  many  of  our  States  and  in  all  our  Territories,  we 
have  laws  requiring  scientific  temperance  teaching  in  the  public  schools,  and 
as  this  specific  education  is  the  first  and  main  object  of  our  juvenile  temper- 
ance organization,  we  often  hear  the  query,  "  Is  not  this  public  school 
teaching  enough  ?  " 

At  first  thought  one  might  say  that,  in  a  community  where  the  law  is  well 
enforced  by  a  school  board  and  teachers  in  thorough  sympathy  with  it,  the 
children  might  consider  it  an  insult  to  their  intelligence  were  they  asked  to 
organize  a  society  wherein  they  could  be  taught  the  scientific  basis  for  total 
abstinence,  when  they  probably  would  know  more  about  the  poison,  alcohol, 
and  its  physiological  effects,  than  most  of  the  grown  people  in  the  same 
locality.  But  we  ought  to  band  these  children  together  to  train  them  as 
temperance  workers,  that  the  principles  taught  in  school  may  be  wrought 
out  in  active  service,  and  that  the  truths  there  learned  may  be  supplemented 
by  more  elaborate  illustration  than  the  most  faithful  teacher  will  have  time  to 
undertake  with  a  curriculum  already  crowded.  In  school  the  child  is  taught, 
but  in  our  societies  he  must  be  trained,  and  we  can  not  afford  to  let  the  chil- 
dren lose  the  benefit  of  associated  work  in  a  society  of  their  own,  which 
means  as  much  in  rallying  children  as  older  people. 

We  who  wear  the  White  Ribbon  are  women  of  peace,  but  we  believe  in 
training  the  children  to  a  warfare  against  sin  and  every  bad  habit,  not  only 
that  "  all  things  bright  and  good  may  seem  their   natural  habitude,"   but 


Temperance.  119 


because  of  the  beautiful,  unconscious  influence  of  the  little  child,  which  must 
be  utilized  for  our  cause.  George  Eliot  says  :  "In  old  days  there  were  angels 
who  came  and  took  men  by  the  hand  and  led  them  away  from  the  city  of 
destruction.  We  see  no  white-winged  angels  now,  but  yet  men  are  led  away 
from  threatening  destruction  ;  a  hand  is  put  into  theirs  which  leads  them 
forth  gently  toward  a  calm  and  bright  land,  so  that  they  look  no  more  back- 
ward; and  that  hand  may  be  a  little  child's." 

Miss  Anthony.  You  will  now  listen  to  a  woman  who,  at  least  thirty- 
five  years  ago,  was  speaking  in  behalf  of  the  emancipation  of  four  millions 
of  slaves,  Mrs.  Frances  Ellen  Harper. 

THE    NEGLECTED  RICH. 

Mrs.  Harper.  Society  organizes  its  charities  and  corrections  for  its  per- 
ishing and  dangerous  classes ;  builds  prisons  and  reformatories  and  the  gal- 
lows for  one,  and  extends  sheltering  arms  to  the  other.  There  is  a  fine 
sympathy  among  the  American  people  to  which  we  can  readily  appeal  on 
occasions  of  widespread  calamities  ;  a  sympathy  which  reached  out  its  hands 
to  Chicago  when  she  sat  down  by  the  ashes  of  her  conflagration,  which  has 
been  more  ready  to  give  than  even  Boston  may  have  been  ready  to  receive  ; 
a  sympathy  which  extended  itself  to  the  Southwest  when  the  yellow-fever 
was  breathing  its  bane  upon  the  morning  air  and  distilling  its  poison  on  the 
midnight  dews  ;  but  who  thinks  of  feeling  or  caring  for  the  neglected  rich — 
the  men  with  plethoric  purses  but  attenuated  souls,  the  moral  cripples  who 
tread  on  velvet  carpets,  who  suffer  from  the  most  fatal  of  all  neglects — self- 
neglect — a  neglect  which  projects  itself  into  the  lives  of  others? 

No  mother  can  waste  her  physical  strength  and  dwarf  her  moral  and 
spiritual  capacities  without  entailing  a  reaction  on  the  lives  of  her  children. 
No  man  can  make  his  heart  a  ledger  and  write  upon  it  nothing  but  tax  and 
loss  and  gain,  average  and  barter,  without  cheating  the  world  through  what 
he  withholds  from  it. 

The  strength  of  a  nation  is  not  in  the  power  of  its  armies,  the  strength  of 
its  plots,  nor  wealth  of  its  coffers,  but  in  the  intelligence  of  its  people,  its 
happy  homes,  and  well-trained  and  educated  children.  I  do  not  stand  here 
to  make  a  tirade  against  wealth,  nor  to  say  that  we  have  not  among  us  men 
and  women  who  hold  wealth  as  a  sacred  trust  and  regard  themselves  as 
stewards  of  God  to  make  the  world  gladder  by  their  presence  and  better 
through  their  influence.  But  the  class  to  which  I  refer  are  the  people  who 
give  to  life  false  values  and  fictitious  estimates  ;  the  men  who  increase  their 
possessions  through  wrong-doing,  who  uphold  prosperous  sins,  and  virtually 
say,  "Let  us  make  money,  though  we  extract  it  from  blood  and  tears." 
Self-neglected  men  to-day  sustain  the  liquor  traffic,  though  it  grinds  out  in 
our  midst  a  fearful  grist  of  misery,  sin,  and  death.  I  hear  the  clink  of  the 
dollar  and  the  plea  of  the  shopkeeper,  but  above  it  all  I  hear  the  agonized 
cry  of  the  drunkard's  wife  and  the  wail  of  his  deserted  children.     *     *    * 


120  International  Council  of  Women. 

In  the  South  men  fettered  the  slave  and  cramped  their  own  souls,  denied 
him  knowledge  and  darkened  their  own  spiritual  insight ;  if  heathenism 
judged  aright  that  a  degraded  woman  could  not  be  the  mother  of  a  hero, 
what  breadth  of  philanthropy  could  the  child  of  the  master  learn  from  the 
lips  of  the  slave?  Selfishness,  luxury,  and  idle  ease  are  not  bracing  atmos- 
pheres in  which  to  develop  the  manly  virtues  and  Christian  graces.  Neither 
are  homes  of  ignorance  and  poverty  good  schools  for  the  development  of  all 
that  is  best  in  human  nature.  If  neglect,  ignorance,  are  fruitful  sources  of 
untold  misery,  then  is  it  not  an  important  question  to  ask  what  shall  be  done 
with  the  neglected  rich  who  need  truth  more  than  flattery  ;  the  men  who 
make  corners  in  wheat  and  combinations  in  coal;  who  grind  the  faces  of  the 
poor  by  the  depression  of  labor;  who  throw  their  lives  between  God's  sun- 
shine and  the  shivering  poor? 

Let  the  horns,  the  school,  and  the  college  combine  to  teach  the  young  les- 
sons which  they  may  bind  as  an  amulet  around  their  heads  and  throw  as  a 
bulwark  around  their  lives.  Let  the  young  learn  that  all  the  great  battles  of 
humanity  are  not  yet  fought  out ;  that  if  slavery  was  the  enemy  of  one  race 
we  have  another  battle  on  hand  with  the  enemy  of  every  race  under  heaven, 
and  that  the  world  has  need,  now  as  then,  of  noble  deeds  and  earnest  men 
and  women,  tender,  true,  and  strong  to  war  with  error,  sin,  and  wrong. 
Let  the  press  stand  on  the  side  of  the  home  and  the  church  of  God,  against 
the  madness  and  folly  of  the  rum  traffic.  And  in  conclusion  let  the  pulpit 
teach  the  sacredness  of  man,  the  intrinsic  dignity  of  the  soul,  its  high  ori- 
gin, its  relationship  to  God,  and  that  the  weakest  and  poorest  little  one  is 
linked  to  the  throne  of  the  Eternal  by  such  strong  but  invisible  ties  that  if 
you  rudely  jar  them  upon  earth  they  will  tremble  around  the  throne;  let  it 
be  impressed  upon  the  conscience  of  the  neglected  rich  that  while  men  may 
boast  of  the  aristocracy  of  wealth  and  talent,  the  aristocracy  of  the  soul  out- 
ranks all  other.  The  truest  science  is  that  which  leads  to  a  truer  life  ;  the 
highest  of  arts  is  the  art  of  building  a  good  character. 

Miss  Anthony.  Our  next  speech  will  be  from  Mrs.  Susan  H.  Barney,  of 
Rhode  Island,  National  Superintendent  of  the  Prison,  Jail,  Police,  and  Alms- 
house Work  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

POLICE    MATRONS. 

Mrs.  Barney.  It  wasn't  strange  that  the  National  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union  should  go  into  the  dark  places  of  the  world,  to  the 
prisons  and  almshouses,  where  we  find  those  who  wander  in  strange  paths. 
But  at  the  very  first  oars  was  reform  work,  and  we  stood  for  two  or  three 
years  upon  the  edge  of  the  precipice  trying  to  pull  those  back  who  were  in 
danger  and  keep  them  from  going  over.  But  they  have  been  worsted,  they 
have  been  carried  out  of  the  police  station,  they  have  been  carried  out  to  the 
house  of  correction,  but  we  have  followed  them.  Then  naturally  our  hearts 
turned  to  those  unfortunate  women,  the  great  bond  of  sisterhood  stretched 


Temperance. 

out  over  these  classes,  and  we  came  to  realize  that  there  was  a  serious  gap 
between  the  work  of  prevention  and  the  work  of  reformation.  As  we  inves- 
tigated we  found  that  women  were  arrested  either  on  suspicion,  or  for  slight 
misdemeanor  or  for  crime,  and  were  taken  to  the  police  station,  searched  if 
need  be,  and  there  were  various  reasons  that  led  to  this  searching,  such  as 
stolen  goods,  or  weapons,  or  liquor.  They  were  searched  by  men,  locked 
up  in  a  cell — perhaps  underground — and  shut  up  there  until  the  morning, 
when  the  policeman  took  them  before  the  justice. 

What  we  ask,  friends,  is  that  in  every  city  there  shall  be  at  one  or  more 
stations  a  woman  with  full  police  authority,  into  whose  hands  every  woman 
arrested  shall  be  given  to  be  cared  for  ;  that  care  to  extend  to  the  court,  where 
the  matron  shall  go,  sit  by  her,  and  protect  her  until  she  is  sentenced  or  re- 
leased. Of  course  we  are  told  that  none  but  strong  men  can  manage  these  un- 
fortunates, but  it  would  be  well  in  the  interests  of  good  morals  to  give  them  the 
protection  of  a  good  woman's  presence  ;  and  it  would  be  a  protection  for  the 
police  themselves  from  the  foul  charges  often  made  and  which  doubtless  are 
frequently  untrue.  A  pure  woman  there  could  have  an  influence  which  would 
mean  vastly  more  than  men  realize. 

I  remember  very  well  my  experience  in  my  own  city.  They  said  to  us, 
"Well,  if  you  could  see  one  woman  that  comes  in  here  three  or  four  times  a 
year,  '  Old  Sal !'  " — they  told  me  it  always  took  four  policemen  to  bring  her 
into  the  cell,  and  usually  they  got  their  faces  scratched.  One  morning  these 
policemen  stood  there  radiant,  saying :  "  We  have  got  her  here  this  morning, 
and  we  would  like  to  see  you  bring  her  in  ;  if  you  can  do  that  we  will  not 
oppose  you  any  more."  The  chief  offered  to  send  two  men  to  take  care  of 
me.  I  said,  "  I  don't  want  them."  So  they  let  me  go  alone.  As  I  came  to 
the  cell  I  rapped  with  the  key  and  opened  the  door,  and  there  in  the  long, 
dark,  narrow  cell  crouched  the  woman,  looking  more  like  a  wild  beast  than 
a  human  being.  She  was  just  ready  to  spring,  as  she  was  expecting  the 
policemen,  and  cried  out,  "  Who  are  you?"  "  I  am  your  friend."  "  No, 
you  are  not ;  I  haven't  got  any  friends.  I  thought  something  was  queer 
when  somebody  rapped  at  the  door  ;  I  never  had  that  done  in  all  the  times 
I  have  been  here  before.  Who  are  you,  anyway  ;  a  policeman  ?"  "No,  I 
am  a  policewoman."  "  Oh,  I  didn't  know  they  had  any  such  things."  I 
looked  down  into  her  eyes  and  called  her  by  her  last  name  with  Mrs.  before 
it.  "Who  told  you  that;  I  have  not  heard  it  before  for  forty  years."  I 
said  :  "  You  know  you  have  got  to  go  into  a  court  in  a  minute  and  you  are  not 
fit  to  go,"  and  I  began  to  smooth  her  hair.  I  took  a  pin  out  of  my  own  hair; 
she  hadn't  a  button  or  a  pin  or  fastening  of  any  kind  to  her  clothes  ;  she  sat 
there  tugging  and  holding  them  together,  and  as  I  tried  to  arrange  her  gar- 
ments she  said :   "  Tell  me  what  you're  up  to,  tell  me  what  you  mean." 

By  and  by,  looking  into  her  eyes,  I  said  :   "  Do  you  remember  the  first  time 
you  were  ever  in  a  police  station?"    "Oh,  God,  don't  I  remember  it !"     "  How 
9 


122  International  Council  of  Women. 

old  were  you?"  "  I  wasn't  sixteen."  "  How  old  are  you  now?"  "I  am 
more  than  sixty. "  "  How  many  times  have  you  been  in  these  places  ?"  "  Oh, 
I  don't  know;  I  guess  God  don't  know,  it  is  so  often."  "  Look  here,  Sallie, 
if  I  had  been  there  that  first  morning — do  you  remember  how  you  felt?" 
"Ah,  I  was  almost  scared  to  death;  I  cried  all  night."  "Sallie,  if  I  had 
been  there  then  and  had  wiped  the  tears  off  your  face,  if  I  had  put  your  hair 
up  and  put  my  hand  on  your  shoulders  as  I  have  now,  what  would  it  have 
meant  to  you?"  "Oh,  I  would  never  have  got  back  again,  but  nobody 
ever  cared."  "  Now,  let  me  tell  you,  Sallie,  I  want  you  to  do  something 
for  me  ;  I  want  to  get  a  woman  to  go  into  these  places  to  care  for  the  women 
in  the  way  I  want  to  care  for  you  ;  wouldn't  you  like  to  do  it  to  help  me?" 
"  I  would  do  anything  I  could  to  help  you,"  she  said.  "  Now,  the  police- 
men say  I  can't  bring  you  into  court  this  morning."  "They  don't  know  what 
you  can  do."  "  Will  you  go  quietly  with  me?"  "  I  will  do  anythingyou  tell 
me  to."  Then,  after  a  minute,  I  said  to  her,  "Sallie,  do  you  remember 
your  mother?  "  "  Oh,  God,  don't  talk  about  it ;  she's  dead  long  ago.  I 
suppose  she  died  before  I  was  seven  years  old."  "  Was  she  a  good  mother 
to  you,  Sallie?  "  "  The  best  that  a  child  ever  had."  "  Did  she  ever  pray 
with  you,  Sallie?  "  "  Oh,  don't ;  you  will  kill  me  if  you  talk  about  it." 
"  Sallie,  I  am  going  to  pray  with  you,"  and  with  my  hands  upon  the  poor 
head  I  lifted  up  my  voice  to  Him  who  is  not  willing  that  she  should  perish — 
that  any  should  perish.  Oh,  how  pleasant  it  seemed  to  us  that  morning  ;  it 
seemed  to  me  that  instead  of  my  hands  upon  her  tempted,  tired  head  there 
were  the  hands  that  had  the  nail-prints  in  them.  She  said,  "  I  feel  like 
another  woman."  "They  are  calling  us  now;  we  must  go.  You  will 
remember,  now,  what  you  have  promised?"  "  I  will  remember."  I  said 
to  her,  "Shall  you  take  my  arm  or  shall  I  take  yours?  "  She  looked  me 
over  and  said,  "  Well,  I  am  about  three  times  as  large  as  you  ;  I  guess  you'd 
better  take  mine."  So  we  went  into  the  court.  They  said  they  would  have 
cheered  us  if  it  had  been  proper.  A  policeman  swore  a  round  oath  and  said 
I  had  bewitched  Sallie,  but  some  one  keener  than  the  policeman  said, 
"  She's  got  the  touch  of  the  Master." 

I  would  like  to  lay  a  little  part  of  this  burden  upon  every  woman's  heart. 
This  Police  Matron  movement  has  passed  beyond  experiment.  Commenced 
in  1877,  in  Portland,  Maine,  it  has  moved  on  until  it  is  inaugurated  in  ten 
cities.  In  Massachusetts  is  our  greatest  success,  where  a  bill  has  passed  for 
the  appointment  of  one  or  more  matrons  in  all  the  larger  cities.  New  York 
has  a  bill  before  the  legislature  which  we  are  hopeful  of  having  passed. 
Chicago  inaugurated  the  movement  by  the  Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union  placing  matrons  at  the  police  station  and  donating  the  salary  to 
the  city,  because  the  city  couldn't  afford  it.  The  first  quarter,  the  matron 
at  the  Harrison-street  station  had  fifteen  hundred  girls  under  her  care; 
the  next   year  the  city  adopted    the  movement,  and   now  they  have   ten 


Temperance.  123 

police  matrons  alternating  day  and  night  between  five  stations,  and  they 
have  had  eleven  thousand  women  and  girls  under  their  care.  While  we  were 
working  it  out  in  Philadelphia  there  were  two  births  in  two  months  in  the 
police  station,  and  only  men  present  in  that  hour  of  woman's  direst  need. 
Such  things  have  not  been  uncommon.  Philadelphia  has  just  made  appro- 
priations for  two  more  matrons,  and  has  reported  nine  thousand  persons 
under  their  care,  reaching  all  the  way  from  three  years  of  age  upwards. 

This  movement  is  in  the  interest  of  decency  and  humanity,  and  I  hope 
every  woman  here,  by  her  advocacy  of  it,  will  help  to  bring  about  the  time 
when  these  women,  some  of  them  more  sinned  against  than  sinning,  may 
have  a  door  opened  to  them,  and  be  brought  to  the  touch  of  the  Master's 
hand. 

Miss  Anthony.  One  fact  in  regard  to  police  matrons.  In  the  District* 
of  Columbia  a  Suffrage  Association  Committee,  of  which  Mrs.  Jane  H. 
Spofford  is  chairman,  have  had  this  matter  for  some  time  under  considera- 
tion. Through  Mrs.  Spofford's  efforts  a  petition  has  been  extensively  circu- 
lated and  signed  by  many  of  the  leading  men  in  Washington,  and  there  is 
now  pending  in  Congress  a  bill  for  the  appointment  of  police  matrons  in  this 
city.  Dr.  Mary  Weeks  Burnett,  delegate  of  the  National  Temperance  Hos- 
pital and  Medical  College  Association,  will  now  address  you. 

THE    NATIONAL   TEMPERANCE    HOSPITAL. 

Dr.  Burnett.  The  advancement  of  a  nation  depends  largely  upon  the 
health  of  its  people.  Physicians  are  the  recognized  guardians  of  the  public 
health,  and  nobly  have  they  met  the  trust.  The  great  aim  of  the  physician 
and  of  all  medicine  should  be  to  prevent  disease  and  to  restore  the  sick  to 
health.  The  science  of  medicine  is,  however,  so  complex  a  study — it  em- 
braces so  wide  a  range  of  knowledge,  there  are  so  many  problems  yet 
unsolved — that  some  conditions  of  vital  importance  to  the  health  of  the 
people  may,  unless  special  thought  is  given  to  them,  be  in  danger  of  being 
overlooked.     Among  these  is  the  use  of  alcohol  as  medicine. 

Is  alcohol  necessary  in  medicine  ?  There  are  no  statistics  to  prove  that 
alcohol  can  prevent  disease  or  death.  The  highest  judicial  power  in  the  land, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  its  recent  decision  based  upon  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment,  declares  that  "  we  can  not  shut  out  of  view  the  fact, 
within  the  knowledge  of  all,  that  the  public  health,  the  public  morals  and 
the  public  safety  may  be  endangered  by  the  general  use  of  intoxicating 
drinks."  It  has  been  scientifically  demonstrated  that  the  effect  of  alcohol 
upon  the  nerve-centers  is  to  narcotize  or  paralyze  them.     *     *     * 

It  is  to  prove  that  alcohol  is  not  needed  in  nor  for  medicine  that  the  Na- 
tional Temperance  Hospital  and  Medical  College  Association  has  been 
established,  based  upon  the  principle — the   successful  treatment  of  disease 


124  International  Council  of  Women. 

without  alcohol.  In  this  we  do  not  claim  originality,  for  one  of  like  nature 
was  established  in  England  years  ago,  but  we  do  urge  upon  your  thought 
that  there  exists  a  great  necessity  for  such  an  institution  in  our  own  country, 
which  will  make  investigation  into  this  subject,  that  we  may  demonstrate  by 
facts  which  are  accessible,  voluminous  and  incontrovertible,  that  alcohol  is 
not  necessary  in  medical  practice.  The  London  Temperance  Hospital  has 
already  arrested  the  attention  of  English  scientists  and  concentrated  their 
thoughts  upon  the  subject.  The  reports  of  that  hospital  state  that  "an 
experience  of  fifteen  years  has  justified  the  widest  possible  adoption  of  the 
principle — no  alcohol  in  medicine." 

But  we  need  to  investigate  this  question  for  ourselves.  The  climate  of 
America,  its  form  of  government,  its  mixed  population  and  its  numberless 
race  crossings,  its  exciting  political  and  business  life  into  which  our  people 
are  drawn  as  into  a  maelstrom,  all  tend  to  make  of  us  a  peculiar  and  complex 
people,  and  to  create  conditions  of  weakness  and  disease  which  demand 
especial  study  as  to  their  causes,  the  effect  of  narcotics  upon  them,  and  the 
surest  methods  of  dealing  with  these  causes  and  effects. 

Realizing  the  vital  necessity  for  an  object-lesson  which  should  arrest  the 
thought  of  American  people  upon  this  subject,  a  body  of  earnest,  philan- 
thropic women  determined  to  establish  a  National  Temperance  Hospital  in 
Chicago,  and,  later,  as  soon  as  sufficient  funds  can  be  secured  from  friends 
of  the  principle,  to  build  not  only  a  hospital  and  training-school  for  nurses, 
but  a  medical  college,  where  students  shall  have^an  opportunity  to  study 
and  compare  the  success  of  these  methods  of  treatment  with  those  of  other 
hospitals. 

The  hospital  and  training-school  for  nurses  were  opened  in  Chicago  two 
years  ago.  Our  board  of  trustees  is  composed  entirely  of  women ;  but  in  all 
of  our  branches  of  work  outside  of  the  board,  men  and  women  will  work 
together.  *  *  *  Our  largest  gifts  and  donations  to  the  present  time 
have  been  from  women — two  having  endowed  perpetual  beds  at  five  thou- 
sand dollars  each,  and  three  others  having  given  twenty-five  hundred  dollars 
each.  In  one  respect  we  are  international,  for  we  have  patients  from  all 
parts  of  the  United  States  and  from  Canada.  We  have  many  more  appli- 
cants than  our  present  building  will  accommodate.  We  find  that  we  must 
enlarge  our  work,  and  are  planning  to  build  as  soon  as  the  money  can  be 
secured. 

Organized  as  we  are  for  an  especial  purpose,  we  have  a  need  of  special 
rules  for  our  government.  The  following  is  one  of  the  articles  of  our  con- 
stitution :  All  medicines  used  in  the  hospital  must  be  prepared  without  alco- 
hol, and  all  physicians  accepting  positions  on  the  medical  staff  must  pledge 
themselves  not  to  administer  alcohol  in  any  form  to  any  patient  in  hospital 
or  dispensary,  nor  to  call  in  counsel  any  physician  who  will  advise  the  use  of 
alcohol. 


Temperance.  125 

About  seven  hundred  cases  in  all  have  been  treated  during  the  last  two 
years.  They  are  of  both  sexes,  from  all  classes  of  people,  and  include  all 
general  conditions  of  disease,  acute  and  chronic,  whether  requiring  medical 
or  surgical  aid.  We  have  as  yet  had  no  deaths.  Our  experience  already 
proves  that  even  in  the  most  critical  stages  of  shock  and  collapse  our  patients 
are  better  without  alcohol  than  with  it.  Not  only  does  the  period  of  depres- 
sion seem  to  be  safer,  but  we  find  that  the  reactionary  fever  is  not  so  great, 
and  that  the  vital  forces  can  more  fully  assert  themselves  without  the  nar- 
cotizing influence  of  alcohol.  An  accurate  record  of  cases  and  treatment 
is  kept  for  future  scientific  reference.     *     *     * 

Friends,  the  bed-rock  of  the  temperance  question  is,  No  alcohol  in  medi- 
cine. It  reaches  into  every  home.  It  affects  alike  all  classes  of  people  and 
all  parties.  It  is  not  a  political  question,  but  it  is  one  that  vitally  affects  the 
efforts  of  all  philanthropists  and  statesmen.     *     *     * 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  introduce  to  you  Matilda  B.  Carse,  of  Chicago, 
President  of  the  Woman's  Temperance  Building  Association. 

THE    TEMPERANCE    TEMPLE. 

Mrs.  Carse.  Fourteen  years  have  sped  by  since  that  noble  band  of  women 
at  Hillsboro',  Ohio,  inaugurated  the  crusade  against  the  saloon,  the  outcome 
of  which  has  been  the  organization  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  in  every  State  and  Territory  in  this  country,  and  also  in  many  lands 
beyond  the  sea.  Our  organization  has  no  less  than  forty-three  separate  and 
distinct  lines  of  work.  From  this  you  can  judge  we  are  laying  broad  and 
deep  foundations.  But  to  make  it  more  effective,  we  must  have  money  to 
push  these  different  lines  of  work  on  to  greater  success.  We  need  national 
headquarters  worthy  our  grand  constituency,  which  numbers  200,000  women, 
besides  200,000  boys  and  girls  in  the  Loyal  Temperance  Legions. 

The  need  of  a  national  building  and  large  income  has  impressed  itself 
upon  me  with  ever-growing  power  during  the  last  five  years.  I  have  heard 
a  voice,  distinct  and  imperative  :  "  Say  to  these  women,  'Arise  and  build  !'  " 
In  obedience  to  the  command,  I  have  undertaken,  with  the  co-operation  of 
Miss  Willard,  and  the  assistance  of  the  great  temperance  host,  to  erect  a 
building  in  Chicago,  to  be  known  as  the  Temperance  Temple.  In  pur- 
suance of  this  long- contemplated  plan,  on  the  13th  of  July,  1887,  the  Wo- 
man's Temperance  Building  Association  was  incorporated.  Its  purpose  is  to 
erect  in  Chicago  a  building  as  headquarters  for  the  National  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $500,000  ;  shares,  $100 
each.  When  the  stock  is  all  sold  $300,000  worth  of  bonds,  bearing  5  per 
cent,  interest,  will  be  issued. 

The  local  societies  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  are 
asked  to  give  $500,000  towards  this  enterprise.  There  are  ten  thousand 
local  unions  in  the  country.  If  but  one-half  of  these  give  $100  each,  we 
have  the  desired  half-million,  which  is  the  amount  of  the  capital  stock.     In 


126  International  Council  of  Women. 

order,  however,  to  give  the  unions  sufficient  time  to  raise  this  sum,  the 
stock  will  be  sold  to  capitalists  who  are  friendly  to  the  cause,  with  the  priv- 
ilege of  buying  it  back  again  within  five  years,  with  the  understanding,  also, 
that  the  dividends  are  not  to  exceed  5  per  cent,  annually.  It  is  hoped  that 
at  the  end  of  five  years  the  desired  $500,000  will  be  raised  by  the  unions, 
with  which  the  corporation  will  buy  up  the  entire  capital  stock  for  the 
National  Society. 

A  most  valuable  lot,  with  a  frontage  on  three  streets,  in  the  very  finest  busi- 
ness portion  of  the  city,  has  been  obtained.  The  lot  is  166  feet  long  by  100 
feet  deep.  The  only  way  it  can  be  secured  is  by  a  lease-hold  title.  The 
lease,  however,  is  perpetual,  and  the  charge  for  ground  rent,  $35,000  a  year, 
can  never  be  increased.  It  is  proposed  to  erect  upon  this  an  edifice  which 
will  cost  $800,000.  It  is  to  be  a  great  office  building,  with  the  exception  of 
rooms  for  national  headqaurters  and  a  hall  which  will  hold  about  one 
thousand  persons.  It  is  to  be  twelve  stories  high.  This  building  will  bring  in 
a  rental  amounting,  at  the  lowest  calculation,  to  $181,500  a  year.  With  this 
money  we  propose  to  pay  off  the  $300,000  bonded  debt.  When  the  build- 
ing is  clear  of  debt,  the  National  Society,  having  free  headquarters,  will  also 
receive  half  the  income  from  the  rentals.  The  other  half  will  go  to  the 
States.  The  States  will  receive  a  pro  rata  of  this  dividend  in  proportion  to 
the  amount  they  have  given  toward  the  building  fund.     *     *     * 

The  style  of  architecture  chosen  is  the  late  Gothic  of  France.  The  enrich- 
ment is  very  largely  concentrated  about  the  main  entrance,  where  it  is 
intended  to  carve  the  coats-of-arms  of  all  the  various  State  organizations 
belonging  to  the  National  Union  and  the  heraldic  devices  relating 
thereto.  In  the  large  tympana  above  the  outer  and  inner  entrance  through 
the  main  doorway,  the  general  coat-of-arms  of  the  National  Union  and  the 
name  of  the  building  are  to  be  wrought  in  glass  mosaics,  which  will  be  equally 
brilliant  by  night  or  day.  *  *  *  Two  large  fountains  adorn  the  two 
corners  on  the  main  front.  The  tower  is  so  large  and  important  as  to  domi- 
nate the  building,  and  also  the  entire  city,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  Madonna 
and  Child,  which  forms  the  finial,  will  indicate  to  all  observers  that  the 
temple  is  not  merely  a  commercial  structure,  but  has  for  its>  object  some- 
thing higher — the  protection  of  home. 

A  board  of  trustees  has  been  secured,  who  are  men  of  national  celebrity. 
On  the  board  of  directors  are  four  gentlemen,  some  of  them  being  among 
the  largest  capitalists  of  Chicago.  Miss  Esther  Pugh,  our  national  treasurer, 
is  the  recipient  daily  of  a  continuous  stream  of  small  sums,  varying  from  ten 
cents  to  one  hundred  dollars.  Not  only  does  this  money  come  from  all  the 
States  and  Territories  of  our  own  land,  but  from  all  parts  of  the  world  ; 
Europe,  Japan,  India,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea  have  contributed  toward 
the  fund.     Everything  in  connection  with  this  enterprise  is  progressing  most 


Temperance.  127 

satisfactorily.  We  expect  to  raise  the  entire  amount  of  the  capital  stock  this 
year.  In  May,  1889,  we  hope  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of  this  woman's  temple. 
Do  you  see  anything  prophetic  in  it  ?  Will  it  not  usher  grandly  in  the 
twentieth  century,  which  is  destined  to  be  the  woman's  century,  par  excel- 
lence ? 

Oh,  fair  is  the  vision  that  greets  me, 

As  my  eyes  pierce  futurity's  veil. 
Of  a  temple  whose  wonderful  beauty 
Outrivals  antiquity's  tale. 

Its  walls  are  of  marble  the  whitest, 

Symbolic  of  purposes  pure ; 
And  the  grandest  of  human  endeavors 

In  its  massive  proportions  endure. 

Each  statue  so  proudly  uprising, 

Each  beautiful  fresco  of  art, 
Embodies  a  sacrifice  noble 

From  many  a  womanly  heart. 

America's  women  are  praying 

For  the  day  when  their  eyes  shall  behold 
The  glorious  Temperance  Temple 

Its  wonderful  beauty  unfold. 

Miss  Anthony.  This  to  which  you  have  just  listened  is  not  a  dream,  a 
mere  speculation  of  a  person  who  has  had  no  financial  experience  whatever, 
but  it  is  from  the  head  and  the  pen  of  a  woman  who  has  made  a  great  suc- 
cess financially  in  the  management  of  a  newspaper  which  indeed  surpasses 
any  woman's  enterprise  ever  known — the  Union  Signal,  of  Chicago.  I  now 
present  to  you  Mary  H.  Hunt,  the  National  Superintendent  of  Scientific  In- 
truction  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

OUR  REASONS. 

Mrs.  Hunt.  Tried  by  the  canons  of  modern  civilization  the  saloon  is  a 
nuisance,  and  why  it  can  not  be  abated  is  a  very  serious  question,  and  one  we 
are  trying  to  answer.  But  under  our  institutions  one  can  not  chase  a  thousand, 
nor  two  put  ten  thousand  to  flight  in  a  fair  count  on  election  returns.  We 
must  have  iust  one  more  vote  for  "  no  saloons  "  than  "  for  saloons  "  in  order 
to  get  prohibition  even  nominally,  and  to  get  it  really  we  must  have  a  control- 
ling majority.  We  have  tried  this  experiment  in  four  States  during  the  past 
year,  and  the  saloon  won  every  time.  Why?  Because  there  was  a  major- 
ity of  men  in  those  States  that  believed  in  drink,  and  thev  wanted  it.  And 
the  papers  said  public  opinion  did  not  sustain  prohibition  in  those  States. 
What  John  thinks  is  private  opinion,  but  what  all  the  Johns  think  is  public 
opinion.  Now,  if  Mary  could  only  have  voted,  if  she  could  have  been 
counted,  it  might  have  changed  the  returns.  But  they  won't  count  Mary; 
she  is  out,  and  so  the  question  of  shutting  up  the  saloon  is  virtually  a  ques- 
tion of  how  soon  can  we  convert  these  Johns  to  total  abstinence,  and,  when 
they  have  once  begun  to  drink,  this  is  a  very  difficult  thing  to  do.  Our  thought 
is  turned  toward  that  new  half-million  voters  that  come  in  every  year,  as  the 


128  International  Council  of  Women. 

statistics  show  us,  and  we  are  saying  that  we  will  devote  our  attention  to 
them,  and  if  we  can  only  win  them  we  will  very  soon  change  the  situation. 
Therefore  we  have  organized  in  this  country  the  Temperance  Educational 
Movement. 

It  is  five  years  since  the  first  temperance  law  was  enacted  in  Vermont,  and 
now  thirty-four  States  and  Territories  in  this  country  have  provided  for  the 
temperance  education  of  children.  There  are  more  than  six  and  one-half 
millions  of  children  in  those  States  and  Territories  that  are  now  taught  that 
alcohol  is  a  poison.  They  are  being  trained  and  drilled,  and  if  you  put  your 
ear  to  the  ground-path  of  history  you  will  hear  the  coming  of  the  army.  There 
is  buoyancy  and  elasticity  in  its  tread.  But  there  are  some  States — we  call 
them  the  unpossessed  lands — on  the  south  of  the  Potomac,  where  it  would  not 
be  of  much  use  to  get  a  temperance  educational  law.  There  are  eighteen  mil- 
lion children  of  school-age  in  this  country,  and  for  seven  and  a  half  million 
of  these  there  are  no  schools,  and,  worse  yet,  no  money  in  the  locality  to 
furnish  them.  There  is  a  great  impoverished  territory,  but  these  people 
are  doing  more  for  schools,  in  proportion  to  their  property,  than  are  some 
of  us  in  the  North.  And  yet  a  gentleman,  the  chairman  of  the  committee 
of  education  in  the  Methodist  Conference  in  Georgia,  wrote  me  that  the 
Sta,te  provided  for  schools  for  only  three  months  in  the  year,  and  two-thirds 
of  that  time  they  had  hardly  any  schools  at  all,  so  imperfect  are  the  accom- 
modations. 

And  now  you  can  see  why  I  want  the  Blair  Education  Bill  to  pass.  You  can 
see  how  essential  it  is  to  the  completion  of  our  purpose  and  plan  that  the  day 
should  dawn  when  every  child  in  this  Republic  shall  be  taught  in  the  schools 
to  abhor  strong  drink.  That  bill  has  passed  the  United  States  Senate  three 
times.  All  the  venom,  all  the  misrepresentations,  all  the  caricature  that 
could  be  gathered  up  from  the  bottomless  pit  have  been  poured  upon  it,  and 
still  it  lives.  They  say  it  is  dead,  but  it  is  not ;  nothing  can  die  that  is 
essential  to  the  preservation  of  a  Republic  like  this.  God  never  launched 
here  the  great  experiment  of  self-government  and  then  left  it  without  His 
omnipotent  power  to  support  it.  It  is  in  God's  eternal  purpose,  and  it  is  essen- 
tial for  the  bringing  in  of  the  day,  as  we  have  already  said,  when  our  children 
shall  all  know  better  than  to  drink  and  smoke  as  their  fathers  did.    *    *    * 

The  session  closed  with  the  singing  of  "Home,  Sweet  Home," 
by  the  audience. 


WEDNESDAY,  MAECH  28,  1888. 

MORNING  SESSION. 
INDUSTRIES. 

Mrs.  Laura  M.  Johns,  President  Kansas  Equal  Suffrage 
Association,  presiding.     Invocation,  Rev.  Annie  H.  Shaw. 

Mrs.  Johns.  Martin  Luther's  first-born  daughter  was  dead,  and  he  had 
entered  the  room  where  lay  the  beautiful  mortal  part  of  her,  clothed  for  the 
tomb,  and  found  there  Catherine  von  Bora  weeping  sorely  over  the  bier. 
He  said  to  her :  "  Sweetheart,  why  do  you  weep  so  bitterly?  This  is  a  hard 
world  for  girls."  And,  truly,  the  history  of  the  ages  does  not  show  us 
that  life  is  a  rose-lined  pathway ;  neither  is  it  flower-strewn  when  we  are 
women.  And  the  farther  you  glance  down  the  long  vista  of  the  past  the 
blacker  does  the  record  become.  Few  things  more  severely  try  my  patience 
than  to  hear  the  lamentations  of  certain  folk  over  the  good  old  days  that 
are  gone — the  days  of  our  grandmothers — for  surely  it  seems  to  me  that 
human  kind  is  steadily  advancing  to  a  higher  and  broader  plane. 

Less  than  fifty  years  ago  there  were  only  four  gainful  avocations  open  to 
women  compelled  to  earn  their  living — at  the  point  of  a  needle,  amid 
the  whirl  of  factory  machines,  teaching  little  children  A  B  C's,  or  doing 
housework.  From  those  four  avocations,  only  such  a  short  time  ago,  women 
have  now  entered  into  hundreds  of  employments — many  of  them  unusual — 
even  Margaret  Fuller's  prophecy  of  the  woman  sea  captain  is  now  fulfilled. 
But  with  all  these  places  open,  the  fact  yet  remains  that  women  are 
receiving  unequal  wages  for  equal  work.  While  there  is  any  industry  closed 
that  they  are  fitted  to  enter,  while  the  wages  are  less  than  those  of  men  who 
do  the  same  work  and  do  no  more  and  in  no  better  fashion,  our  mission  is 
not  fulfilled  and  the  heavenly  vision  is  not  materialized. 

In  my  own  State,  in  progressive  Kansas,  we  have  not  a  few  industries  open 
to  women,  and  they  are  building  up  fast,  considering  the  youth  of  our  State 
and  the  fact  that  women  are  in  the  minority.  We  have  much  sewing  and 
pretty  good  wages  for  sewing  women.  We  have  much  housework  done 
at  living  rates.  We  have  5,300  teachers,  and  notwithstanding  they  receive 
smaller  wages  than  the  men,  the  difference  is  much  less  than  between  the 
average  wages  of  the  men  and  women  in  the  older  States.  We  have  school 
suffrage  in  Kansas,  women  as  members  of  school  boards  and  as  county  superin- 
tendents, and  many  of  the  school-houses  which  dot  our  prairies  were  built  by 
women's  votes.  Until  recently  only  the  women  in  the  country  and  in  the 
small  visages  had  school  suffrage  in  my  State ;  but  by  the  enactment  of  the 
municipal  suffrage  law,  which  lifted   my   Kansas  sisters  out  of  the  ranks  of 


130  International  Council  of  Women. 

idiots,  the  women  in  all  the  cities   of  our  State  are  now  in  possession  of 
the  school  suffrage,  and  the  wages  of  teachers  must  come  up. 

We  have  bee-keeping  and  a  little  silk-worm  raising,  but  we  do  not  hope  to  do 
much  with  them.  We  have  many  women  practicing  medicine  ;  a  woman 
easily  builds  up  a  practice  there;  the  country  is  growing.  This  is  an  adver- 
tisement for  Kansas,  you  see.  There  are  five  lawyers,  and  still  more  are 
studying  with  the  intention  of  practicing.  We  have  fifteen  editors,  and 
most  of  these  are  editors,  publishers  and  proprietors,  and  are  able  to  do 
any  part  of  the  business,  from  setting  type  to  writing  the  brightest  editorials  of 
our  day.  We  have  many  cashiers,  and  a  great  merchant  told  me  recently  that 
the  women  are  monopolizing  this  position  j  thev  are  making  the  best  cash- 
iers in  the  world,  because  they  are  more  accurate.  This  was  very  refreshing, 
as  we  have  been  wearied  with  the  declaration  that  the  feminine  brain  is  so 
constructed  that  women  can  be  nothing  but  inaccurate.  Then  we  have 
farmers,  stenographers,  type-writers,  photographers,  and  real-estate  agents. 
Our  women  succeed  admirably  in  the  real-estate  business,  but  the  main 
objection  is  in  the  fact  that  it  requires  a  great  deal  of  talking.  I  think  I 
might  class  among  the  leading  industries  in  our  State  the  homestead  of 
lands.  Many  of  your  New  England  schoolmarms  are  going  West  and  tak- 
ing up  lands ;  and  the  other  industry  is  marrying.  Marriage  in  Kansas  pays 
better  ultimately  than  it  does  in  most  States,  because  of  the  joint  earnings 
of  the  joint  corporation,  woman  is  reasonably  sure,  under  the  law,  of  one- 
half  after  her  husband  has  emigrated  to  that  land  to  which  earthly  possessions 
are  not  checked  through.  Hopeful  as  is  all  this,  our  industrial  opportunities 
are  yet  inadequate  and  considered  unimportant. 

The  report  of  our  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  appeared  without  a 
single  word  as  to  the  conditions  of  our  laboring  women.  A  letter  from  this 
bureau  just  received,  however,  attests  that  a  mighty  correlation  of  forces  is 
at  work  to  achieve  woman's  industrial  redemption.  These  gentlemen  say 
that  they  are  about  to  enter  on  the  business  of  collecting  statistics  of  Kansas 
women's  industries.  They  say,  "  Our  personal  observation  of  the  oppres- 
sion and  discrimination,  which  working  women  are  compelled  to  undergo, 
leads  us  to  believe  that  our  noblest  and  highest  efforts  can  be  devoted  to  no 
better  purpose  than  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  public  upon  the  barbarism 
which  clings  to  the  treatment  of  the  majority  of  our  working  women." 

Victor  Hugo  says  :  "A  day  will  come  when  the  cannon  ball  will  be  ex- 
hibited and  gazed  upon  with  as  great  astonishment  as  is  to-day  the  instrument 
of  Inquisitorial  torture."  Aye,  and  the  day  will  come  when  we  shall  regard 
with  equal  surprise  the  fact  that  the  women  of  the  nineteenth  century  had 
only  a  menial  place  in  the  industrial  world,  and  received  the  smallest  wages 
for  their  work.  We  believe  that  the  industrial  advance  and  the  financial 
independence  of  a  woman,  married  or  single,  will  furnish  the  solution  to 
many  social  problems.  The  gravity  of  this  question  makes  it  a  fitting  subject 
for  discussion  in  this  great  Council. 


Industries.  131 

I  now  have  the  honor  to  introduce  to  you  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore, 
whose  name  and  fame  are  so  well  known  to  you  that  she  needs  no  word  of 
introduction  at  my  hands. 

INDUSTRIAL  GAINS  OF  WOMEN  DURING  THE  LAST  HALF-CENTURY. 

Mrs.  Livermore.  Our  social  structure  has  been  based  on  the  theory  that 
"  all  men  support  all  women,"  a  theory  which  has  never  been  true,  and 
which  is  farther  from  being  true  to-day  than  ever  before.  Consequently, 
boys  have  been  educated  to  have  some  clear-cut,  well-defined  purpose  in  life. 
The  whole  world  of  culture,  work,  and  business  has  been  open  to  them. 
It  is  regarded  as  a  misfortune  when  a  boy  grows  to  manhood  content  to 
live  on  the  labor  of  others.  With  girls  it  has  been  otherwise.  It  has  been 
assumed  that  they  would  marry  and  be  "  supported  "  by  competent  husbands. 
The  only  training  necessary  for  them  with  this  inevitable  future  before  them 
should  be  such  as  would  fit  them  to  be  wives,  mothers,  and  housekeepers — 
"  sweet  dependents,"  held  perpetually  in  "  soft  subjection."  The  practical 
working  of  this  theory  has  weighted  women  with  heavy  disabilities,  for  many 
men  make  neither  good  nor  competent  husbands.  Many  are  incompetent, 
others  are  invalids,  some  are  dissolute  and  idle,  and  not  a  few  are  profligate 
and  entirely  desert  both  wives  and  children.  Many  women  who  have  hus- 
bands find  themselves  compelled  to  aid  in  earning  the  means  of  living  ; 
many  wives  earn  the  entire  livelihood  of  the  whole  family,  the  husband 
included.  Many  women  are  widows,  while  an  increasingly  large  number  in 
the  Eastern  and  Middle  States  do  not  marry  at  all. 

By  the  United  States  census  of  1880,  in  the  States  of  Alabama,  Connect- 
icut, Georgia,  Louisiana,  Maine,  Maryland,  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire, 
New  Jersey,  New  York,  North  Carolina,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  South 
Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Virginia — sixteen  in  all — women  outnumber  men. 
This  list  includes  the  two  largest  States  of  the  Union  and  it  comprises 
all  of  the  original  thirteen,  except  Delaware.  In  Massachusetts  women 
outnumber  men  by  70,000.  If  our  present  type  of  civilization  remains 
unchanged,  the  newer  States  will  exhibit  the  same  excess  of  women  in  their 
population  in  the  near  or  remote  future.  There  are  born  into  the  world  on 
the  average,  taking  one  year  with  another,  106  boys  to  every  100  girls,  as  if 
nature  designed  to  maintain  the  equilibrium  of  the  sexes,  and  so  guard 
society  from  demoralization.  But  the  desolating  wars  of  the  world,  drunk- 
enness, and  other  ruinous  excesses  peculiar  to  men,  and,  at  the  present  day, 
the  waste  of  lives  consequent  on  the  reckless  and  absorbing  rush  of  men  into 
dangerous  businesses  in  pursuit  of  wealth,  are  responsible  for  the  fact  that  in 
old  and  long-established  communities  women  outnumber  and  outlive  men.  It 
is  evident,  therefore,  that  a  large  number  of  women,  millions,  the  world  over, 
have  not  married,  because  there  are  not  men  enough  to  marry  them,  and 
that  they  must  do  their  share  of  the  world's  work  and  in  some  way  achieve 
their  own  bread-winning.     If  untaught  in  any  remunerative  industry,  lack- 


132  International  Council  of  Women. 

ing  in  practical  knowledge,  and  untrained  in  the  forms  of  business,  they 
must  suffer  great  hardships.  If  property  comes  to  their  possession,  their 
ignorance  of  affairs  will  make  them  an  easy  prey  to  the  dishonest  and 
designing. 

The  old-time  theory  that  "  all  men  support  all  women  "  led  to  the  enact- 
ment of  laws  which  gave  all  the  earnings  of  the  married  woman  to  her  hus- 
hand  ;  in  most  instances  gave  him  control  of  her  property,  always  legal  pos- 
session of  her  person,  and  legal  ownership  of  her  minor  children  ;  the  right 
to  decide  the  location  of  their  joint  domicile  ;  the  power,  in  short,  to  become 
the  arbiter  of  her  fate  ;  while  the  husband,  in  return  for  the  service  rendered 
him  by  the  wife,  was  to  give  her  such  shelter,  food,  and  clothing  as  was  com- 
patible with  his  means,  or  inclination.  While  the  woman  remained  unmar- 
ried and  a  minor,  all  her  earnings  belonged  to  her  father,  who  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  demand  and  retain  them.  Usually,  if  she  remained  unmarried  through 
life,  she  continued  to  share  the  labors  of  her  father's  household  without  other 
compensation  than  shelter,  food,  and  clothing,  as  in  the  days  of  her  minority, 
sometimes  receiving  a  meager  stipend  from  her  father's  estate  when  he  died. 
Generally,  however,  the  property  of  the  father  was  left  to  the  sons,  with  the 
exception  of  the  mother's  right  of  dower,  and  the  mother  and  sisters  became 
then  the  dependents  of  sons  and  brothers,  as  they  had  formerly  been  of  the 
father  and  husband.  In  some  sections  of  the  country  this  unjust  and  iniqui- 
tous condition  of  things  remains  still  unchanged. 

When  the  early  Woman  Suffragists  took  their  stand  for  a  redress  of  the 
wrongs  of  women,  they  used  no  vague  or  ambiguous  language.  As  early  as 
1838  Angelina  Grimke  and  Abby  Kelly,  who  were  the  first  women  orators  I 
ever  heard,  uttered  their  protest  against  the  wrongs  of  woman,  from  an  anti- 
slavery  platform.  They  severely  denounced  the  custom  of  society  which 
closed  the  doors  of  remunerative  industries  against  women,  and  thereby  con- 
demned large  numbers  to  abject  dependence  and  compulsory  poverty.  Ten 
years  later,  when  the  first  Convention  was  held  at  Seneca  Falls,  New  York, 
an  occasion  commemorated  by  this  week's  International  Conference, 
women  reiterated  the  protest  and  the  denunciation,  and  demanded  political 
equality  as  a  remedy  for  these  wrongs.  Two  years  later  another  Woman's 
Convention  was  held  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  and  again  there  rang  out  the 
demand  for  equal  political  rights  for  men  and  women,  equal  educational 
opportunities,  and  *'  partnership  in  the  labors  and  gains,  risks  and  remuner- 
ations, of  productive  industry."  It  is  impossible  to-day  to  describe  the  fierce 
outburst  of  ridicule  with  which  the  public  received  these  demands.  Press 
and  pulpit,  legislatures  and  courts,  public  men  and  private  citizens,  society 
and  fashion,  all  hastened  to  wash  their  hands  of  these  innovators,  and  to 
label  them  with  the  opprobrious  epithets  so  lavishly  affixed  to  those  who  inau- 
gurate a  reform.  A  dozen  years  were  spent  in  this  severe  pioneer  work,  and 
then  came  the  four  years  civil  war.     All  reformatory  work  was  temporarily 


Industries.  133 

suspended,  for  the  nation  then  passed  through  a  crucial  experience,  and  the 
issue  of  the  fratricidal  conflict  was  national  life  or  death. 

The  transition  of  the  country  from  peace  to  the  tumult  of  war  was  appall- 
ing and  swift,  but  the  regeneration  of  its  women  kept  pace  with  it.  They 
lopped  off  superfluities,  retrenched  in  expenditures,  became  deaf  to  the  calls 
of  pleasure,  and  heeded  not  the  mandates  of  fashion.  Their  work  was  that 
of  relief  and  philanthropy,  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world 
the  women  of  America  developed  a  heavenly  side  to  war.  They  cared  for 
the  needy  families  of  soldiers,  nursed  the  sick  in  camp  and  the  wounded 
in  hospitals,  ministered  to  the  dying  in  the  rear  of  battle-fields,  and  kept  full 
to  overflowing  the  channels  of  beneficence  which  extended  from  Northern 
homes  to  the  army  at  the  front.  For  their  multiform  work  they  needed 
immense  sums  of  money,  and  now  the  latent  business  abilities  of  women 
began  to  show  themselves. 

They  came  to  Washington  and  competed  with  men  for  Government  con- 
tracts for  the  manufacture  of  army  clothing,  and  obtained  them.  When 
their  accounts  and  their  work  were  rigorously  inspected  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment they  received  commendation  and  not  a  word  of  criticism,  and  were 
awarded  larger  contracts.  They  planned  great  money-making  enterprises, 
whose  vastness  of  conception  and  good  business  management  yielded  millions 
of  dollars  to  be  expended  in  the  interest  of  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  The  last 
two  of  the  colossal  sanitary  fairs  held  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  yielded, 
respectively,  one  million  dollars  and  one  million  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  Women  were  the  inspiration,  the  creators,  the  great  energizing 
force  of  these  immense  fairs,  and  also  from  first  to  last  of  the  sanitary  com- 
mission. Said  Dr.  Bellows:  "There  was  nothing  wanting  in  the  plans  of 
the  women  of  the  commission  that  business  men  commonly  think  peculiar  to 
their  own  methods."  Men  awoke  to  the  consciousness  that  there  were  in 
women  possibilities  and  potencies  of  which  they  had  never  dreamed. 

Clara  Barton,  doing  clerical  work  in  a  department  of  the  Government 
and  declining  to  receive  compensation  therefor,  attracted  no  attention.  But 
Clara  Barton  in  hospitals  and  on  hospital  transports,  bringing  order  out  of 
chaos,  hope  out  of  despair,  and  holding  death  in  abeyance;  Clara  Barton  at 
Andersonville,  where  13,000  soldiers  had  yielded  up  life  under  the  prolonged 
horrors  of  a  military  prison,  and  had  been  ignominiously  buried  in  long 
trenches,  uncared  for,  unnoted  and  unknown,  attracted  the  attention  and 
aroused  the  gratitude  of  the  nation.  For  she  ordered  the  trenches  opened, 
the  unknown  dead  exhumed  and  decently  buried,  each  man  in  a  separate 
grave,  with  a  headstone  recording  his  name,  his  rank,  and  the  date  of  his 
death. 

Anna  Dickinson,  in  the  Philadelphia  Mint,  working  for  a  pittance  and 
making  impassioned  speeches  on  various  occasions  for  the  enslaved  black 
man,  was  regarded  as  a  nuisance.     But  Anna  Dickinson  on  the  platform, 


134  International  Council  of  Women. 

with  impassioned  speech  and  fervid  moral  earnestness,  pleading  the  cause  of 
the  slave  and  receiving  $100  and  $200  a  night  for  the  service;  Anna  Dick- 
inson in  the  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire  Republican  campaigns,  thrill- 
ing both  States  with  her  eloquent  utterances,  the  acknowledged  power  that 
won  the  victory  in  both  for  the  Republican  party,  became  the  heroine  of  the 
hour,  and  was  hailed  as  the  Joan  d'Arc  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  development  of  those  years  and  the  impetus  given  to  women  by  the 
swift  logic  of  events,  which  has  not  yet  spent  itself,  has  been  wonderfully 
manifested.  Since  the  great  quickening  in  1861  women  have  organized  mis- 
sionary, philanthropic,  temperance,  educational,  and  political  associations 
on  a  scale  of  vast  magnitude.  Without  much  blowing  of  trumpets  or  un- 
seemly boasting  they  have  overcome  almost  insuperable  obstacles,  have 
brought  business  abilities  to  the  management  of  theiraffairs,  and  have  achieved 
phenomenal  success.  Their  capacity  for  public  affairs  receives  large  recog- 
nition at  the  present  time,  and  they  are  elected  or  appointed  to  such  offices 
as  those  of  county  clerk,  register  of  deeds,  pension  agent,  prison  commis- 
sioner, State  librarian,  overseer  of  the  poor,  school  superintendent  and 
supervisor.  They  serve  as  executors  and  administrators  of  estates,  trustees 
and  guardians  of  property,  trusts,  and  children,  engrossing-clerks  of  State 
legislatures,  superintendents  of  women's  State  prisons,  college  presidents 
and  professors,  members  of  boards  of  State  charities,  lunacy,  and  correction, 
police  matrons,  and  post-mistresses.  They  are  accountants,  pharmacists, 
cashiers,  telegraphers,  stenographers,  type  -  writers,  chemists,  dentists, 
book-keepers,  authors,  journalists,  painters,  architects,  and  sculptors. 
And  the  last  statue  of  Anne  Whitney,  unveiled  in  Boston  a  few  months  ago, 
the  ideal  statue  of  the  Norseman  Leif,  the  son  of  Eric,  is  regarded  by  many 
competent  critics  as  the  most,  exquisite  work  of  art  that  has  come  from  the 
studio  of  any  American  sculptor.  In  many  of  these  positions  women  serve 
with  men,  who  graciously  acknowledge  the  practical  wisdom  that  they  bring 
to  their  duties.  "And  although  many  women  have  been  appointed  to  posi- 
tions in  departments  of  Government,  and  to  important  employments  and 
trusts,"  said  Senator  Blair,  of  New  Hampshire,  from  his  seat  in  Con- 
gress, "as  far  as  your  committee  are  aware,  no  charge  of  incompetence  or 
malfeasance  in  office  has  ever  been  sustained  against  a  woman." 

With  the  progress  of  the  modern  industrial  system  there  appears  to  be  no 
limit  to  the  opportunities  of  women.  Only  a  little  over  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago  women  were  allowed  to  enter  very  few  remunerative  occupations. 
In  1840,  when  Harriet  Martineau  visited  this  country  to  study  its  insti- 
tutions, that  she  might  be  able  to  forecast  the  type  of  civilization  to  be 
evolved  from  them,  she  especially  investigated  the  position  of  women  in  the 
young  republic.  She  was  surprised  to  find  them  occupying  a  very  sub- 
ordinate position  in  a  country  calling  itself  free,  and  to  find  they  had 
entered  only  seven  paying  occupations.     They  were  allowed  to  teach,  to  be 


Industries.  135 

seamstresses,  which  included  tailoring,  dress-making,  and  millinery  ;  they 
could  keep  boarding-houses,  enter  domestic  service,  become  operatives  in 
factories,  compositors  in  printing  offices,  and  folders  and  stitchers  in  book- 
binderies.  The  last  United  States  census  gives  the  names  of  nearly  three 
hundred  employments  in  which  women  are  working.  The  women  of  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  are  working  in  284  occupations,  and  251,158  are 
earning  their  living  in  them,  receiving  for  their  labor  annually  from  $150 
to  $3,000.  This  computation  does  not  include  amateurs,  nor  mothers  and 
daughters  in  the  household,  and  excludes  domestic  service. 

So  important  a  class  are  the  working  women  of  Boston  that  Hon.  Carroll 
D.  Wright,  Chief  of  the  Massachusetts  and  of  the  National  Bureau  of  Sta- 
tistics of  Labor,  devoted  134  pages  of  his  Fifteenth  Annual  Massachusetts 
Report,  published  in  1884,  to  a  consideration  of  the  20,000  women  of  the 
city  employed  in  occupations  other  than  domestic  service.  He  instituted  a 
most  thorough  and  searching  investigation  to  ascertain  their  normal,  sanitary, 
physical,  and  economical  condition.  Taking  an  average  thousand  of  these 
workers  as  a  number  amply  sufficient  for  the  scientific  purposes  of  the  inves- 
tigation, he  learned  their  personal  histories,  and  from  these  deduced  tabulated 
statements  of  great  value,  which  startled  the  whole  community.  For  he 
proved  to  us  by  figures,  which  are  said  not  to  lie,  that  "  the  average  yearly 
income  of  the  working  woman  of  Boston  from  all  sources  is  $269.07,  and 
that  her  average  yearly  expenses  for  positive  needs  are  $261.30,  leaving  but 
$7.77  on  the  average  as  a  margin  for  occasions  of  illness,  religious  purposes, 
books,  amusements,  etc."  In  his  summary  of  facts  Mr.  Wright  assures  us 
that  "  the  working  girls  of  Boston  are,  as  a  class,  industrious  and  virtuous  ; 
that  they  are  making  a  heroic  struggle  against  many  obstacles  and  in  the  face 
of  peculiar  temptations  to  maintain  reputable  lives,  and  are  entitled  to  the 
aid,  sympathy,  and  respect  of  all  who  love  good  order,  honest  lives,  and 
industrious  habits."  I  have  no  doubt  a  similar  investigation  into  the  lives  of 
the  working  women  of  other  cities  would  reveal  a  similar  condition  of  things. 

It  is  the  popular  belief  that  women  have  hardly  entered  the  field  of  inven- 
tion. In  a  late  magazine  article  written  by  one  of  the  ablest  and  noblest 
women  the  statement  was  made  that  "only  334  patents  had  ever  been  issued 
to  women,  and  these  were  mostly  for  articles  of  household  use."  But  Mr. 
R.  C.  Gill,  who  has  been  in  charge  of  the  model  hall  in  the  Patent  Office 
since  1871,  has  made  a  record  of  female  inventors  who  have  obtained 
letters  patent  from  the  United  States.  The  record  is  complete  to  December 
14,  1 886,  up  to  which  date  "women  had  taken  out  patents  for  1,935  inventions, 
six  times  the  number  usually  quoted."  Mr.  Gill's  record  shows  that  "there 
is  no  branch  of  industry  in  which  woman  has  not  left  proof  of  her  mechanical 
skill."  The  first  patent  granted  by  the  United  States  for  a  submarine  telescope 
was  issued  to  a  woman  in  1845.  Women  have  received  letters  patent  for  fire- 
escapes,  a  life-preserver  skirt,  life-boats,  and  life-rafts,  and  for  improvements 


136  International  Council  of  Women. 

in  boot  and  shoe  making.  They  have  patented  machines  for  "  driving  bar- 
rel-hoops, a  steam-generator,  a  baling-press,  a  steam  and  fume  box,  an  auto- 
matic floor  for  elevator  shafts,  a  rail  for  street  railways,  an  electrical  illumi- 
nating apparatus,  a  railway-car  safety  apparatus,  packing  for  piston  rods,  car 
coupling,  electric  battery,  improvement  in  locomotive  wheels,  materials  for 
packing  journals  and  bearings,  machine  for  drilling  gun-stocks,  a  stock  car, 
an  apparatus  for  destroying  vegetation  on  railways,  another  for  removing 
snow  from  the  tracks,  a  non-inductive  electric  cable,  an  apparatus  for  rais- 
ing sunken  vessels,  a  dredging  machine,  a  method  of  constructing  screw 
propellers,  improvements  in  locomotive  and  other  chimneys,  a  railway  tie,  a 
covering  for  the  slot  of  elevated  railways,  and  a  device  for  deadening  the 
sound  on  elevated  railways."  The  farmers,  of  whom  there  are  many,  have 
taken  out  patents  for  a  grain  elevator,  several  varieties  of  fences  (one  of 
them  a  flood-fence),  a  grain  and  cockle  separator,  a  grain  and  malt  drier,  a 
reaping  and  mowing  machine,  a  mode  of  protecting  fruit  trees  from  curculio, 
several  improvements  for  harness,  wagons,  and  carriages,  a  cotton  picker, 
cow-milkers,  detachable  spouts  for  milk-pails,  butter-tubs,  churns,  bee-hives, 
a  machine  for  manufacturing  honey-comb  foundations,  a  bee-feeding  device, 
and  many  more  of  a  similar  nature.  In  1879  Harriet  Hosmer,  the  dis- 
tinguished sculptor,  patented  a  method  of  making  artificial  marble. 

In  the  higher  civilization,  which  is  our  ideal,  and  of  which  we  dream, 
every  man  who  chooses  will  have  a  wife,  and  every  woman  a  husband.  The 
husband  will  be  the  bread-winner  and  the  wife  the  bread-maker — the  artist 
in  the  shaping  and  rearing  of  well-born  children.  Then  will  human  father- 
hood and  motherhood  take  on  something  of  the  tenderness,  fullness,  and 
divineness  of  Godhead,  and  then  will  "statelier  Eden  come  again  to  man." 

The  civilized  nations  of  the  world  are  entering  an  age  of  industrial  con- 
flict, where  the  struggle  for  national  supremacy  will  be  as  hotly  contested  as 
it  has  been  on  any  of  the  battle-fields  of  history.  "  The  epic  poem  of  the 
future,"  says  Carlyle,  "shall  not  begin  like  that  of  Virgil,  •  Arms  and  the 
man  I  sing,'  but  'Tools  and  the  man  (and  woman)  I  sing.'  "  Soldiers  are, 
to  be  sure,  still  drilled  in  the  camps,  but  children  and  youth  are  also  being 
trained  in  industrial  art  in  schools  of  design  and  normal  art  schools,  and 
in  industrial  drawing  in  the  public  schools.  The  days  of  chivalry  are  over, 
with  its  tilts  and  tournaments,  but  the  working  world  arranges  the  tourna- 
ments of  to-day,  and  summons  the  competing  peoples  to  bring  together  the 
results  of  their  skilled  workmen  and  women,  now  to  an  exposition  in  Lon- 
don and  then  in  Vienna,  now  in  Philadelphia  and  then  in  Paris. 

The  ancient  commercial  dimensions  of  the  earth  are  swept  away  forever, 
and  competition  is  now  world-wide.  This  will  compel  the  thorough  train- 
ing of  American  working  people  in  industrial  education,  based  on  art  and 
science.  We  need  technical  schools  as  we  find  them  in  the  Old  World, 
abundant  and  open  alike  to  old  and  young,  rich  and  poor,  and  as  ff  ^  to 


fa 


ersitt; 

Industries.  ^^0- 

women  as  to  men.  They  should  be  supplemented  bym"usenms  of  a  high 
order,  which  will  raise  the  standard  of  taste  and  stimulate  to  higher  attain- 
ments. "Never  will  women  have  social  equity  till  they  have  legal  equal- 
ity," said  the  good  and  just  Canon  Kingsley,  a  truth  as  fundamental  as 
that  which  underlies  the  Golden  Rule.  Therefore,  to  working  women,  as 
indeed  to  all  women,  the  ballot  is  a  necessity.  It  is  the  only  synonym  of 
legal  equality  that  a  republican  government  can  know. 

Above  all,  at  the  present  time,  should  women  cultivate  what  they  griev- 
ously lack,  a  fine  esprit  de  corps.  They  should  stand  together  in  a  solidarity 
that  can  not  be  shaken  by  difference  of  opinion,  nor  weakened  by  jealousy, 
nor  undermined  by  the  cruel  gossip  and  scandal  of  the  world.  "Any  stone 
is  good  enough  to  throw  at  a  dog,"  says  Frances  Power  Cobbe,  "  and  there 
is  yet  a  spirit  in  the  world  that  regards  any  slur,  inuendo,  or  hint  of  base- 
ness as  legitimate  if  uttered  concerning  a  woman."  "The  woman  Thou 
gavest  me,  she  gave  me  of  the  tree  and  I  did  eat,"  is  still  the  pitiful  plea  of  the 
shirk  and  the  coward.  It  should  not  be  echoed  by  women,  nor  exalted  by 
them  to  the  dignity  of  an  accusation.  I  lack  language  in  which  to  express 
-my  sense  of  reprobation  of  the  course  pursued  by  those  women  who,  from 
their  soft  and  easy  homes,  where  they  are  anchored  in  the  love  of  manly 
husbands,  enter  the  arena  of  public  life  only  to  beat  back  their  sisters  who 
seek  larger  opportunities  than  suffice  for  themselves ;  who  make  their  own 
opinions  and  wishes  the  measure  of  all  women's  needs,  and  cry  out  to  legis- 
latures and  courts,  parliaments  and  congresses  :  "  Hold,  enough  !  Concede 
to  women  no  more  of  their  demands,  for  we  have  all  the  rights  we  want!  " 

"  Whene'er  a  wrong  is  done 
To  the  humblest  and  the  weakest  'neath  the  all-beholding  sun. 
That  wrong  is  also  done  to  us,  and  they  are  slaves  most  base, 
Whose  love  of  right  is  for  themselves,  and  not  for  all  the  race." 

The  Chairman,  Mrs.  Johns.     We  have  with  us  one  who  will  tell  us  what 

has  been  done  in   the  Grange  for  equal  suffrage  in  the  government  of  this 

organization — Anna  M.  Worden,  Worthy  Master  of  Vineland  Grange,  No. 

ii,  who  will  now  address  you. 

WOMEN    IN   THE   GRANGE. 

Anna  M.  Worden.  After  the  addresses  listened  to  from  this  platform 
perhaps  you  will  consider  the  paper  I  present  this  morning  a  mere  bundle  of 
commonplaces,  but  the  lives  of  working  people  are  largely  made  up  of  com- 
monplaces, and  as  I  represent  a  class  of  women  hitherto  looked  upon  as  the 
most  obscure,  you  will  pardon  me,  for,  if  I  speak  of  women  in  the  Grange,  I 
must  refer  to  women  on  the  farm. 

The  limit  of  this  paper  will  not  permit  a  history  of  the  Grange,  nor  is  it 
needful,  since  you  must  know  that  it  is  the  farmer's  secret  order, "organized 
as  Patrons  of  Husbandry  for  purposes  of  mutual  defense  and  protection.  It 
has  been  styled  the  farmer's  war  upon  monopoly,  but  it  is  more  than  that,  it 
is  the  farmer's  hunger  after  a  higher  life,  an  awakened  longing  for  the 
10 


138  International  Council  of  Women. 

refinements  and  opportunities  that  invariably  follow  justly  compensated 
labor.1  True,  it  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  farmer's  general  movement  against 
the  extortionate  actions  of  transportation  companies  and  the  greed  of 
middle  men  who  robbed  him  in  every  market.  E.  W.  Martin,  the  his- 
torian of  the  movement,  says  in  his  preface:  "  It  has  long  been  evident  to 
earnest  thinkers  that  the  farmers  of  the  United  States  are  the  most  cruelly 
oppressed  class  of  our  community,  and  yet  they  are  more  than  fifty  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  population.  More  than  that,  agriculture  is  the  life  of  the 
world,  because  it  produces  the  food.  Destroy  it,  and  commerce,  trade,, 
manufactures,  art,  science,  and  our  religion  must  languish  and  die.  The 
farmer's  hand  may  be  hard  and  brown,  but  it  '  holds  the  bread,'  and  there- 
fore the  cause  of  the  farmer  is  the  cause  of  the  whole  people." 

Recognizing  the  fact  that  financial  prosperity  is  the  basis  of  all  prosperity,, 
this  compact  of  the  farmers  nevertheless  puts  the  higher  law  of  moral  and 
intellectual  progress  in  advance.  In  the  declaration  of  purposes  the  first 
proposition  is,  "  United  by  the  strong  and  faithful  tie  of  agriculture,  we 
mutually  resolve  to  labor  for  the  good  of  our  order,  our  country  and  man- 
kind." Their  motto  is:  "  In  essentials,  unity  ;  in  non-essentials,  liberty; 
in  all  things,  charity."  "We  shall  endeavor  to  develop  a  higher  and 
better  manhood  and  womanhood  among  ourselves  ;  to  enhance  the  com- 
forts and  attractions  of  our  homes,  and  strengthen  our  attachments  to  our 
pursuits ;  to  foster  mutual  understanding  and  co-operation  ;  to  maintain 
inviolate  our  laws;  to  systematize  our  work  ;  to  discountenance  the  credit 
system,  the  mortgage  system,  the  fashion  system,  and  any  other  system  tend- 
ing to  prodigality  and  bankruptcy."  Education,  economy  in  expenditure, 
respect  for  differing  opinions,  equality,  equity,  and  fairness,  protection  for 
the  weak,  restraint  upon  the  strong,  justly  distributed  burdens,  and  justly 
distributed  power,  are  all  touched  upon  in  this  "  declaration  of  purposes,"' 
which  deserves  to  rank  with  that  other  declaration,  in  which  men  pledged 
their  "  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor." 

Into  this  order,  which  "  wages  no  aggressive  warfare  with  any  other  inter- 
est," asking  only  its  just  rights,  was  woman  admitted  to  full  membership  ; 
indeed,  she  was  welcomed,  for,  says  the  historian,  "every  husband  and 
brother  knows  that  where  he  can  take  wife  or  sister  there  will  be  no  im- 
purity." Full  membership  was  not  designed  at  first,  but  was  suggested  by 
Miss  C.  A.  Hall,  subsequently  first  lady  assistant  steward  and  first  past 
assistant  secretary  of  the  National  Grange.  In  the  Grange  woman  is  eli- 
gible to  every  office,  except  that  of  steward,  but  holds  the  office  of  lady  as- 
sistant, to  which  no  man  is  eligible. 

No  class  of  our  population  is  so  debarred  from  the  advantages  of  social 
life  or  the  educational  opportunities  which  obtain  in  villages,  and  populous 
centers  of  business  as  the  farming.  The  lecture,  the  concert,  the  strolling 
play,  often  a  genuine  help,  can  not  be  easily  indulged  in  by  dwellers  on 


Industries.  139 

isolated  farms.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  agriculture  involves  more  hours  of 
hard,  grinding  toil — the  soil  often  yielding  but  a  grudging  recompense — 
than  any  other  profession  ;  is  it  any  wonder  that  farmers  have  been  and  still 
are  looked  upon  in  many  quarters  as  ignorant  and  boorish  ?  We  know  there 
are  exceptions  to  all  rules  ;  that  there  are  and  always  have  been  exceptional 
farmers' with  exceptional  advantages. 

And  if  the  farmer's  opportunities  are  limited  and  his  toil  most  exact- 
ing, what  must  be  said  of  the  farmer's  wife  and  daughters?  Men  lead 
everywhere,  women  follow;  men  appropriate;  women,  especially  among 
the  working  people,  accept  what  is  given.  Women  on  the  farms  toil 
early  and  late  with  an  intensity  of  application,  of  which  the  favored 
daughters  of  wealth  or  society  can  have  no  conception.  I  know  whereof 
I  speak,  for  I  am  a  farmer's  daughter,  and  can  remember  the  mothers 
on  the  farms — and  my  mother  was  one  of  them — used  to  rise  at  4  in  the 
morning  almost  the  entire  year,  and  11  at  night  rarely  found  them  at  rest. 
Often  with  a  large  family,  generally  of  children  and  workmen,  with  more 
or  less  of  a  dairy,  with  aged  parents  to  be  comforted  and  sustained  through 
second  childhood,  the  older  children  to  be  kept  in  school,  with  still  tinier 
hands  clinging  to  her  skirts,  and  infant  wants  to  be  answered,  with  a  thou- 
sand and  one  household  matters  to  look  after,  often  with  no  help  but  the 
little  hands,  with  no  changes  to  vary  the  monotony  of  her  daily  toil,  unless 
it  might  be,  if  she  chose,  a  long,  tiresome  walk  to  church,  for  the  horses 
must  rest  on  Sunday,  or  a  half-yearly  visit  to  the  nearest  market  town,  is  it 
surprising  that  the  farmer's  wife  should  grow  sad  and  desponding  ?  Did  she 
love  flowers  she  had  no  time  to  cultivate  them,  and  must  be  content  with  the 
yearly  display  of  fruit-blossoms  and  roses  and  lilacs  that  perchance  grace  a 
corner  of  the  kitchen  garden.  Did  she  love  reading?  There  was  the  Bible, 
Watts's  Hymns,  a  Charlotte  Temple,  and  mayhap  some  history  of  Indian  or 
French  war ;  perhaps  a  weekly  political  paper.  Perhaps  for  weeks  she  fol- 
lowed this  dull  round  of  toil  without  seeing  a  neighbor,  for  they  were  all  as 
busy  as  herself. 

Is  it  strange  that  many,  ere  they  reached  their  meridian,  fell  out  of  the 
ranks  of  the  living  ?  New  England — aye,  and  the  world,  for  that  matter — is 
dotted  all  over  with  the  graves  of  women  who  have  died,  if  not  of  work,  of  spir- 
itual repression,  and  made  no  sign.  It  has  recently  been  asserted  in  medical 
circles  that  no  class  furnished  so  many  inmates  to  the  insane  asylum  as  the 
farmers'  wives.  If  the  intense  toil,  the  monotony  of  farm  life,  the  absence 
of  social  interchange  of  thought  or  recreation,  the  need  of  intellectual  uplift- 
ing have  so  serious  an  effect  upon  the  mothers,  what  must  their  influence  be 
upon  her  offspring?  In  an  address  some  years  ago,  Colonel  Forney,  of  the 
Philadelphia  Press,  lamented  that  the  "  mothers  of  to-day  do  not  work  as 
hard  as  the  mothers  of  the  past."  I  said,  in  my  heart,  thank  God  if  they 
do  not,  for  numberless  children  have  been  defrauded  of  their  natural  right 


140  International  Council  of  Women. 

to  be  born  with  sound  minds  in  sound  bodies  by  the  overwork  and  mental 
repression  of  their  mothers  ! 

To  such  women,  hungry  for  society,  thirsting  for  intellectual  culture  and 
mental  stimuli,  the  Grange  has  appeared  a  white-robed  evangel,  bearing  hope 
and  healing,  lifting  the  burdens  of  life,  and  offering  to  their  acceptance  ac- 
tivity that  are  not  all  toil  nor  all  duty.  "  The  declaration  that  no  Grange," 
s#yf"Mrs.  M.  F.  Kimball,  of  California,  "shall  be  organized  or  exist  with- 
out woman,  was  the  emancipation  of  the  women  of  the  farm."  The  same 
writer  further  says,  "  the  limitless  opportunities  the  Grange  presents  to  women, 
if  seized  upon,  may  convert,  by  social  contact,  the  isolated  farm-house  into 
a  charmed  resting  place,  where  youth  and  age  may  find  pure  pleasures  and 
more  satisfying  enjoyments  than  the  busy  centers  of  life  afford." 

Of  the  opportunities  for  education  in  the  Grange,  one  prominent  factor 
is  debate.  We  are  not  limited  in  the  field  of  discussion,  except  we  are  de- 
nied party  politics  and  religious  sectarianism.  The  whole  field  of  morals, 
science,  and  government  is  open  to  our  choice,  and  all  the  great  questions 
of  the  day  engage  our  attention — temperance,  internal  revenue,  the  tariff, 
all  domestic  affairs,  the  economies  of  home  and  home  keeping,  the  chemis- 
try of  cooking,  the  training  of  children,  the  cultivation  of  flowers,  beside 
many  topics  related  only  to  out-door  work,  in  all  of  which  women  take  a 
deep  interest.  Indeed  we  are  coming  to  like  political  economy,  and  by  the 
time  the  suffrage  is  permitted  us  the  farmers'  wives  and  daughters  will  use 
the  ballot  judiciously.  Something  more  than  a  year  since  R.  H.  Thomas, 
editor  of  the  Farmers'  Friend,  organized  the  Patrons'  National  Reading 
Circle,  after  the  manner  of  the  Chautauqua  Circles.  I  see  by  a  slip  from  the 
lecturer's  department  of  the  National  Grange  that  in  New  England  alone 
they  have  750  reading  circles,  independent,  perhaps,  of  the  National.  In 
addition  to  the  foregoing,  the  National  Grange  issues  a  great  mass  of  excel- 
lent reading  matter  in  the  shape  of  slips,  sheets,  and  tracts,  which  are  dis- 
tributed, by  means  of  appropriations  by  the  State  Granges,  to  the  subor- 
dinate Granges. 

Another  attractive  feature  is  the  public  meeting,  in  which  women  take  an 
active  part.  In  our  own  Grange  we  have  held  them  monthly.  In  winter 
we  invite  the  public  into  our  hall  to  listen  to  addresses  by  the  brothers, 
essays  written  by  the  sisters,  and  readings  and  recitations  by  the  young  peo- 
ple and  children,  interspersed  with  music  and  singing.  Not  unfrequently 
we  engage  some  lecturer  to  occupy  the  platform.  In  summer  our  meeting 
becomes  a  "harvest  feast,"  and  is  the  farmers'  picnic,  held  on  different 
farms,  sometimes  involving  a  long  ride  through  the  country,  amid  bloom 
and  bird-song,  and  usually  chosen  with  reference  to  the  facilities  for 
dining  in  the  open  air.  Here  woman  presides,  and  her  culinary  arts  are 
discussed — experiments  and  experiences  exchanged.  These  are  red-letter 
days  to  the  little  folks,  and  racy,  social  seasons  to  the  elders.     Another 


Industries.  141 

educating  force  in  the  Grange  is  office-holding,  the  value  of  which  is  not  to 
be  computed.  It  teaches  practical  lessons  of  watchfulness,  discipline,  order. 
We  make  familiar  acquaintance  with  methods  of  business  that  are  invaluable, 
study  parliamentary  usage,  learn  to  conduct  meetings,  to  trust  our  own 
voices,  and  to  understand  and  value  individual  opinion.  Mrs.  Augusta 
Cooper  Bristol,  well  known  as  an  able  and  eloquent  speaker,  averred 
emphatically  she  never  could  have  attained  her  present  position  but  for 
the  inspiration  of  the  Grange,  which  is  quick  to  recognize  individual 
ability,  to  encourage  its  improvement,  and  to  give  it  the  best  opportunity. 
Still  another  attractive  feature  of  the  Grange  is  the  co-operative,  under 
which  we  mass  our  orders  for  goods  of  any  description  and  buy  in  bulk, 
whereby  we  greatly  increase  the  purchasing  power  of  means  oftentimes 
limited  ;  and,  as  the  purchasing  power  increases,  the  comforts  and  attrac- 
tions of  our  homes  increase.  For,  as  Mrs.  Flora  M.  Kimball  says,  "  the  pivot 
on  which  all  our  interest  turns  is  home."  It  is  the  center  of  the  world's 
thought,  the  leading  object  of  humanity's  ambition  and  love. 

The  slumbering  genius  of  a  hundred  thousand  women  has  been  awakened, 
and  the  papers  bring  us  news  that  from  one  end  of  our  grand  Republic  to , 
the  other  the  pen  of  the  farmers'  wives  and  daughters  is  busy  :  their  voices 
are  heard  in  advocacy  of  those  principles  that  made  our  order  a  necessity  ; 
their  influence  is  felt  in  the  cause  of  temperance  and  moral  reform.  We 
hear  of  her  in  county  councils  with  timely  words  of  wisdom  ;  in  Grange 
anniversaries,  with  addresses  and  poems  instilling  new  life  into  the  order, 
and  with  a  happy  felicity  embellishing  the  practical  routine  duties  of  the 
hour.  To  woman  the  Grange  is  an  educator  in  a  way  that  no  other 
society  ever  attempted.  Mrs.  C.  Y.  Herring,  of  Maine,  writes:  "The 
good  of  our  country  is  what  we  are  to  labor  for;  not  for  combinations 
that  may  exist ;  not  for  some  particular  policy  or  man  or  set  of  men. 
Believing  that  individual  happiness  depends  upon  general  prosperity, 
we  will  labor  on  in  faith  and  hope  for  the  good  of  our  order,  our  country, 
and  mankind,  exercising  charity  and  fidelity  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  with 
our  faces  to  the  future,  ready  to  act  in  progressive  movements  that  are  con- 
tinually coming  to  the  front.  We  can  maintain  our  life  and  usefulness  only 
through  onward  activity;  we  can  not  live  on  the  past.  Orders  that  must 
point  the  index-finger  backward  are  on  the  road  to  decay.  Neither  can  we 
remain  stationary;  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things.  Then  onward  may  the 
Grange  move  ;  be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage,  for  the  '  Lord  our  God  is 
with  us.' "  Mrs.  Sherman  Kimberly,  of  Connecticut,  writes :  "Woman's 
character  differs  somewhat  from  man's,  and  wherever  she  goes  she  takes  with 
her  a  home  influence.  It  is  a  part  of  her  mission  to  make  all  places  where 
her  feet  tread  like  home,  and  she  is  making  each  subordinate  Grange  home- 
like. She  is  making  it  a  place  where  purity  and  refinement  prevail,  the 
graces  and  virtues  flourish,  love,  kindness  and  tenderness  dwell.     The  Grange 


142  International  Council  of  Women. 

is  indeed  doing  much  for  women.  In  it  man  invite's  her  to  stand  by  his 
side  on  the  same  level  with  himself,  his  friend,  his  counsellor,  his  co-worker, 
and  opens  to  her  all  the.  joys  of  extended  social  intercourse  and  all  the 
avenues  to  knowledge  and  usefulness."  These  are  voices  from  the  farms 
which  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  They  are  the  embodied~lhoughts 
of  women  who  attend  to  all  the  multitudinous  details  of  good  housekeeping. 
They  are  women  who  can  compose  a  poem  or  an  essay  over  the  ironing- 
board,  or  arrange  a  public  meeting  while  they  watch  the  dinner — imagina- 
tive women  who  hear  a  Miserere  in  the  whispering  pines,  a  Te  Deum  in 
every  bird-song — sweet,  motherly  souls  who  can  soothe  the  infant's  wail  or 
speed  the  departing  spirit  on  wings  of  prayer  or  song. 

When  I  think  of  the  net-work  of  thousands  of  Granges  girdling  the  con- 
tinent from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf,  reaching  tender, 
helpful,  uplifting  hands  toward  each  other,  I  am  sure  the  race  is  rising  to 
purer  living.  Why,  it  only  needs  the  strict,  practical  teaching  of  the  tem- 
perance principles  of  this  order  to  make  in  a  single  generation  a  marked 
change.  In  addition  to  its  temperance  principles  the  Grange  is  an  advocate 
of  peace.  Its  methods,  its  proclivities,  its  tastes,  and  its  pursuits  are  all 
peaceful.  Under  its  benign,  uplifting  influence  who  can  tell  what  woman 
may  not  accomplish  for  the  race?  Surely  no  education  in  science,  religion, 
morals,  or  politics  need  be  lost  to  the  mother.  She  will  not  love  her  home 
less,  but  more,  for  it  is  growing  beautifully  fair  under  her  enlightened  min- 
istrations. Sure  I  am  she  is  fast  transforming  this  boorish  farmer — this  butt 
of  editorial  comment,  "  with  hayseed  in  his  hair" — who  has  so  courageously 
built  a  royal  highway  for  her  feet,  into  that  prince  of  nature's  noblemen — a 
just  and  generous  gentleman.  Yes,  a  gentleman  ;  a  bold,  invincible  cru- 
sader as  well.  He  is  awakening  to  the  sense  of  his  own  value  as  the  food- 
producer — to  a  knowledge  of  his  wrongs.  He  is  beginning  to  know  he  has 
been  robbed  in  all  the  ages,  and  that  through  the  evolution  of  those  ages  his 
hour  must  come. 

To  be  sure  he  wears  no  glove,  but  the  hand  within  is  mailed.  Mailed  in  a 
stern  loyalty  to  right,  in  a  patriotic  love  of  free  government,  in  honest, 
truthful  dealing,  man  with  man,  and  in  a  sterling  understanding  of  the  prin- 
ciple and  claims  of  eternal  justice.  I  see  him  down  the  vistas  of  the  future 
battling  with  wrong,  searching  out  every  scheme  of  corruption  and  rob- 
bery, every  compact,  of  oppression,  while  behind  him  glows  his  fireside, 
radiant  in  perpetual  beauty.  All  honor  to  the  Grange;  its  founders  "  builded 
better  than  they  knew,"  when  they  said  to  women,  **  Come  upon  our 
platform  and  share  our  warfare  and  its  attainments."     Esio  perpetua. 

Mrs.  Johns.  I  present  to  you  Hulda  B.  Loud,  who  represents  the  Knights 
of  Labor,  that  organization  in  which  the  men  have  learned  that  their  own 
best  interests  can  not  be  built  upon  the  wreck  of  woman's  equal  chances  to 
gain  independence. 


Industries.  143 

Miss  Loud.  Knights  of  Labor  must  have  a  harsh,  unpleasant  sound  to 
most  of  you  fine  ladies  assembled  here  to-day,  for  with  this  order  and  similar 
ones  is  associated  all  the  disorder  that  has  existed  in  our  country,  since  the 
days  of  the  great  civil  war.  And  yet  this  is  pre-eminently  the  field  for  a 
wo\nan,  since  woman's  conservatism  is  necessary  to  bring  together  the  ex- 
tremes of  capital  and  labor,  now  seemingly  growing  wider  and  wider  apart 
every  day.  Robert  Grant,  in  his  novel,  "  Face  to  Face,"  commits  the  solu- 
tion of  this  labor  problem  to  a  woman,  and  she  gives  the  answer.  And, 
when  men  have  learned  to  value  a  woman's  counsel,  a  peaceful  solution 
will  be  possible.  Not  because  women  are  better  than  men — I  never 
make  that  claim — but  because  women  are  the  complements  of  men,  each 
necessary  to  the  other,  and  both  necessary  to  a  successful  solution  of  all  of 
life's  problems.  The  danger  is,  the  men  will  hold  to  their  own  sweet  will 
till  revolution  brings  its  bloody  lesson  to  point  the  way. 

There  is  a  woman  in  a  town  not  far  from  Boston,  of  a  strong  character, 
quick  intuitions,  and  great  legal  acumen,  who,  not  long  ago,  brought  a  strike 
to  a  speedy  and  successful  settlement.  She  was  secretary  of  the  local  exec- 
utive board  and  acted  in  her  official  capacity.  She  saw  at  once  that  the 
manufacturer  had  been  careless  of  the  interests  of  his  employes,  and  that  the 
men  had  been  hasty  in  their  action  ;  and  so  she  saw  at  once  that  they  should 
be  brought  together  in  order  that  they  might  become  acquainted  with  each 
other.  The  manufacturer  gained  an  advantage  in  his  opening,  and  she  came 
very  near  effecting  a  settlement  right  then  and  there,  but  by  an  indiscre- 
tion— a  little  tyranny,  the  tyranny  that  always  comes  of  power — he  lost  a 
part  of  the  advantage.  He,  however,  offered  to  make  amends  the  next  day 
"by  submitting  it  to  the  State  board  of  arbitration.  One  of  the  leaders  of 
the  strikers  came  to  this  woman  and  asked  her  concerning  the  advisability  of 
submitting  it  to  the  State  board.  "By  all  means,  do  so,"  she  said.  "  I 
know  the  members  of  the  board  well  enough  to  know  that  you  will  be  per- 
fectly satisfied  with  their  decision."  It  was  submitted,  and  the  decision  was 
satisfactory  to  both  employers  and  employees,  and  no  difficulty  has  occurred 
in  that  factory  since  that  time. 

What  do  you  suppose  was  that  woman's  reward  ?  Why,  at  the  next  election 
of  officers  she  was  left  off  the  executive  board.  The  men,  the  leaders,  were 
jealous  of  her  power.  In  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life  men  are  not  jealous 
of  women,  but,  when  it  comes  to  place  and  power,  human  frailty,  male  or 
female,  pushes  all  obstacles  to  self-advancement  one  side,  and  will  do  so 
while  selfishness  is  the  main-spring  of  human  action.  One  of  the  women  of 
Massachusetts  who  speaks  occasionally  on  the  public  platform,  in  connection 
with  one  of  the  members  of  the  district  executive  board  spoke  one  evening 
in  a  factory  town.  The  next  day  this  member  of  the  board  went  to  see  the 
superintendent  of  the  mills  concerning  one  of  his  operatives,  a  young  girl 
who  had  a  grievance.    The  superintendent' would  not  see  him  as  a  committee 


144  International  Council  of  Women. 

of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  but  would  speak  with  him  as  an  individual.  He 
accomplished  nothing.  This  woman  visited  the  mills  in  the  forenoon,  andr 
as  she  was  about  to  leave  them,  she  was  introduced  to  the  superintendent  in 
the  general  office.  He  invited  her  to  his  private  office,  where  she  talked  to 
him  and  an  associate  superintendent  for  two  hours  on  the  general  subject 
of  labor,  and  also  concerning  the  reinstatement  of  this  girl.  She  went  directly 
from  the  mills  to  the  house  of  this  girl,  and  advised  her,  as  it  was  evident 
to  her  that  the  girl  had  been  hasty,  to  go  down  that  afternoon  to  see 
the  superintendent,  telling  her  that  she  felt  sure  that  she  would  be  reinstated. 
She  did  so,  and  was  reinstated  ;  and  so  a  woman  with  her  tact  had  accom- 
plished what  an  official  of  the  order,  whose  business  it  was  to  look  after 
such  cases,  had  failed  to  do.  District  Assembly  No.  30  of  Massachusetts 
is  now  a  State  association,  but  has  been  so  only  a  short  time.  Two  years 
ago  it  was  the  largest  and  richest  district  in  the  order,  numbering  some 
115,000  members,  about  5  per  cent,  of  whom  were  women.  These  women 
are  mostly  from  the  shoe  industry,  in  which  the  most  enlightenment  pre- 
vails. The  most  intelligent  working  men  and  women  are  in  labor  organiza- 
tions; the  ignorant  you  find  in  anarchy  and  revolution.  Many  of  these 
women  are  from  the  middle  classes,  for  the  shoe  industry  is  the  best  paid  in, 
the  United  States.  I  mean  those  industries  employing  any  considerable 
number  of  operatives.  They  are  earnest  and  enthusiastic  in  this  work  of 
labor  elevation.  They  are  slowly  coming  to  a  realizing  sense  of  their  own 
worth  as  individuals,  and  when  I  talk  to  them  of  women's  political  rights- 
they  listen  with  attention,  though  the  whole  current  of  their  lives  has  been 
far  removed  from  any  thought  of  this  kind.  They  are  holding  office  in. 
their  own  female  assemblies,  and  also  in  mixed  assemblies,  since  in  social 
and  political  privileges  our  order  recognizes  no  distinction  of  sex.  And 
they  are  beginning  to  question,  if  it  is  right  to  speak,  vote,  and  hold  office 
in  these  assemblies,  why  is  it  wrong  to  do  so  in  the  State?  "A  little  learn- 
ing," you  see,  "is  a  dangerous  thing."  When  men  allowed  women  to 
learn  the  alphabet  they  gave  up  the  whole  case. 

When  I  speak  to  labor  audiences  I  give  prominence  to  the  Henry  George 
land  theory  as  an  important  factor  in  the  solution  of  this  labor  problem. 
And,  after  I  had  spoken  <in  Ware,  Mass.,  a  factory  town,  the  girls  formed  a 
Woman's  Reading  Club,  for  the  purpose  of  studying  labor  literature,  espe- 
cially the  Henry  George  land  theory.  These  women,  you1  must  remember, 
are,  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  them,  without  education  or  culture;  but  they 
are,  nevertheless,  anxious  to  learn,  and  so  thoughtful  is  this  labor  agitation 
making  them  that  I  consider  this  the  most  hopeful  field  there  is  for  the  ad- 
vance of  woman-suffrage  ideas,  for  here  you  have  the  masses  easy  to  mould, 
and  here  alone  can  you  reach  them. 

I    Women  have  been  appointed  on  committees  in  District  Assembly  No.  30,. 
and  I  think  a  woman  could  have  been  elected  to  the  executive  board  if  the. 


Industries.  145 

right  one  had  been  willing  to  allow  the  use  of  her  name.  And  yet  there  are 
not  enough  offices  to  go  around  among  the  men,  and  that  might  have  mili- 
tated against  her  success.  In  the  scramble  for  power,  outside  as  well  as 
inside  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  no  position  of  importance  to  the  men  will 
come  to  the  women.  One  of  the  most  ardent  of  our  order,  a  man  who  thinks 
that  woman  suffrage  is  the  principle  working  through  the  human  race  that  is 
to  bring  the  kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth,  when  I  was  advocating  the  elec- 
tion of  a  woman  to  the  executive  board,  said  :  "  It  is  not  a  fit  place  for  a 
woman."  '/  Then,"  I  replied,  "  it's  time  for  a  woman  to  go  down  there  and 
make  it  fit."  He  was  himself  an  aspirant  for  that  same  position  at  that  time, 
and  his  ambition  overcame  his  sense  of  justice.  I  question,  however,  if,  in 
the  analysis  of  his  thought,  he  would  be  aware  how  great  weight  this  selfish 
consideration  had  with  him. 

It  will  be  a  long  day  before  many  men  will  attain  the  grandeur  of  char- 
acter manifest  in  John  Stuart  Mill  in  his  dedication  of  his  great  work  on 
"  Liberty."  You  remember  it — the  tribute  to  his  wife  :  "To  her  who  was 
the  inspirer,  and,  in  part,  the  author,  of  all  that  is  best  in  my  works,  I  ded- 
icate this  book."  Most  men  feel  humiliated  to  owe  their  greatness  to 
a  woman,  and  yet  most  men  do.  This  is,  without  doubt,  the  principal 
reason  why  women  hold  none  of  the  offices  in  District  Assembly  30.  They 
are  not  urged  by  the  men,  and  woman,  from  her  very  nature  or  education — 
it  is  hard  to  tell  which  in  the  present  cramped  condition  of  her  faculties — 
Waits  for  this  urging,  and,  by  her  timidity,  impairs  somewhat  her  use- 
fulness. In  my  own  assembly  of  1,000  members,  about  200  of  whom 
are  women,  women  have  held  important  offices,  but  have  declined  to  serve 
further.  There  are,  however,  women  who  are  fitted  to  rule  in  politics,  and 
their  claims  should  be  recognized,  and  will  be,  as  woman  advances  towards — • 
not  out  of,  as  is  generally  considered  the  case — "  her  proper  sphere."  Mrs. 
Barry,  delegate  from  the  Knights  of  Labor,  will,  no  doubt,  give  you  evidence 
of  woman's  official  recognition  outside  of  District  Assembly  30,  as  there  are. 
many  notable  instances.  One,  a  woman  of  Chicago,  has  been  master 
workman  of  a  large  mixed  district  in  that  city. 

The  Knights  of  Labor  is  the  grandest  educational  force  in  the  whole  world 
to-day.  It  is  the  barrier  that  protects  capital  and  monopoly  from  the  results 
of  their  folly  and  crime.  Most  of  you  present  here  are  students  of  his- 
tory, and  have  read  Edmund  Burke  on  the  French  Revolution,  where  you 
see  the  Bastile,  Robespierre,  and  the  bloody  guillotine.  But  I  ask  you  to 
read  the  other  side.  Read  Thomas  Payne,  who  wrote  for  the  people,  and 
gave  a  copyright  of  his  "Crisis"  and  "  The  Rights  of  Man  "  to  every  State  in 
the  Union  5  always  the  friend  of  the  people.  "  Thousands  perished  by  the 
bloody  guillotine  alone  ;'  most  horrible  reflection,"  you  say.  Millions  per- 
ished from  starvation,  millions  for  centuries  endured  a  living  death  to  sup- 
port in  luxury  u  debauched  nobility,  and  above  the  wail  of  want  and  misery 


146  International  Council  of  Women. 

not  one  single  voice  was  ever  heard  to  penetrate  the  royal  adamantine  walls. 
You  can  not  wholly  put  out  the  smouldering  fires  of  justice  in  the  human 
heart.  You  may  prevent  their  outbreak  for  centuries.  Meantime  you  sleep 
on  a  volcano. 

This  labor  question  is  the  most  important  one  before  the  people  to-day, 
and  I  ask  you  to  consider  it  in  the  light  of  its  basic  principles — fraternity, 
the  concern  of  all,  universal  brotherhood — and  not  in  the  light  of  volcanic 
eruptions,  strikes,  and  riots  which  occur  in  spite  of  us,  which  are  but  symp- 
toms of  a  disease  that  must  have  vent,  the  root  of  which  we  should  reach  by 
education.  Labor  organizations  are  the  safety-valves  of  the  discontent  of 
the  masses,  that  will  continue  while  poverty  exists  and  while  there  remains 
a  wrong  to  be  righted.  Everywhere  we  should  encourage  these  organizations 
and  seek,  by  wise  counsel,  to  direct  their  efforts.  Outside  of  labor  organi- 
zations you  have  anarchy  and  revolution.  In  Germany,  Heinrich  Heine 
voices  the  discontent  of  the  masses  in  the  following  pitiful  wail: 

"  With^tearless  eyes,  in  despair  and  gloom, 
Gnashing  their  teeth,  they  sit  at  the  loom: 
'  Thy  shroud  we  weave,  O  Germany  old  ! 
We  weave  into  it  a  curse  threefold; 
We're  weaving,  weaving,  weaving.'  " 

And  this  weaving  is  going  on  all  over  the  world,  while  those  best  able  to 
lend  a  helping  hand  stand  by  unmoved.  I  know  the  voice  of  warning  is 
considered  incendiary  speech,  but  history  teaches  you  that  she  alone  who 
raises  the  note  of  alarm  in  time  of  peace  is  the  true  friend  of  mankind.  And 
I  say  to  you,  in  closing,  capital  must  meet  labor  on  the  broad  ground  of 
common  humanity,  in  the  spirit  of  true  fraternity,  or  the  "curse  of  Ger- 
many of  old  "  will  be  woven  into  our  republican  institutions,  and  over  the 
republican  experiment  in  America  will  be  written  "Failure."  It  must  be 
labor  organization  or  revolution. 

Mrs.  Johns.  Helen  Campbell,  Vice-President  of  the  Sociologic  Society 
of  America,  who  is  now  in  France,  sends  us  a  valuable  paper. 

THE   WORKING   WOMEN    OF   TO-DAY. 

A  desire  to  know  how  far  certain  special  advance  for  women  touched  the 
general,  whether  the  breaking  of  mental  and  spiritual  bonds  for  the  better 
class  had  meant  enlightenment  in  equal  proportion  for  the  one  below,  and 
how  far  the  desire  for  larger  life  had  colored  the  thought  of  the  average 
worker,  led  me  in  the  autumn  of  1886  into  researches  among  the  working 
women  of  New  York.  This  search  continued  there  for  the  greater  part  of  a 
year,  and  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  facts  which,  though  old,  are  also  new, 
since  their  existence  is  periodically  denied  and  periodically  requires  fresh 
demonstration.  Even  those  most  accustomed  to  face  the  dark  side  of  life 
feel  involuntarily  that  things  must  be  better  than  individual  experience 
would  lead  them  to  believe,  and  that  the  want  and  misery  coming  now  and 
then  to  the  surface  mean  simply  a  temporary  condition  in  which  the  real 
workers  have  no  share,  and  which  can  easily  be  accounted  for  by  phrases  we 


Industries.  147 

all  know:  "Congestion  of  labor,  overcrowding  of  cities,"  etc.  Aside 
from  this,  the  conviction  rules  that  women  have  never  been  so  well  paid  or  so 
comfortable,  the  condition  of  trade  and  the  various  occupations  open  to  them 
bettering  with  every  year. 

Such  conviction  may  be  taken  as  quite  true  for  one  side  of  the  statement. 
Opportunity  is  larger,  and  the  200,000  women  at  work  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  like  other  thousands  in  other  cities,  have  open  to  them  nearly  one  hun- 
dred trades  as  against  a  fifth  of  that  number  a  generation  ago.  The  better- 
paying  trades  are  filled  with  women  who  have  had  some  form  of  training  in 
school  or  home,  or  have  passed  from  one  occupation  to  another  till  that  for 
which  they  had  most  aptitude  has  been  determined.  The  more  helpless  turn 
at  once  to  this  one  thing  about  which  there  is  no  hesitation,  and  in  the  needle 
find  their  protection  against  starvation.  That  the  needle  is  less  and  less  a 
weapon  of  defense  ;  that  the  trades  included  in  it,  from  dressmaking  to  shirt- 
making,  are  overcrowded,  underpaid,  and  their  scale  of  payments  lessen- 
ing year  by  year,  makes  no  difference.  The  girl  too  ignorant  to  reckon  fig- 
ures— too  dull-witted  to  learn  by  observation — takes  refuge  in  sewing  as  the 
one  thing  possible  to  all  grades  of  intelligence.  The  woman,  too,  with 
drunken  or  vicious  husband,  more  helpless,  often,  than  the  widow,  seeks  the 
same  source  of  employment.  If  respectably  dressed  and  able  to  furnish  some 
reference,  employment  is  found  for  her  in  some  factory  or  large  establish- 
ment. But  when  fortune  has  sunk  so  low  that  the  only  clothing  left  is  on 
the  back  of  the  worker,  comes  the  final  stage  of  demoralization  and  the  neces- 
sity of  dealing  directly  with  the  "sweater,"  whose  methods  are  more  or  less 
familiar  to  all  who  have  studied  the  question  of  woman's  work  and  wages. 

Very  shortly  it  became  plain  that  for  this  class,  a  large  and  steadily  in- 
creasing number,  the  difficulties  were  fourfold  ;  1st,  her  own  incompetency 
must  very  often  head  the  list  and  prevent  her  from  securing  first-class  work; 
2d,  middle-men  or  sweaters  lower  the  price  to  starvation  point :  3d,  contract 
work  done  in  prisons  or  reformatories  brings  about  the  same  result;  and  4th,  she 
is  under-bid  from  still  another  quarter,  that  of  the  country  woman  who  takes 
the  work  at  any  price.  The  best  firms  and  the  worst  are  alike  affected  by 
these  conditions,  especially  the  last  two,  and  all  employees,,  good  or  bad,  are 
divided  into  three  classes,  all  of  them  subject  to  these  general  limitations.  For 
New  York,  there  are  the  west-side  firms  which  in  many  cases  care  for  their 
workmen  in  a  degree  at  least,  and  where  the  work  is  done  under  conditions 
that  we  must  call  favorable;  the  east-side  firms  representing  generally  cheaper 
material  and  lower  rates;  and  last,  the  slop  work,  which  may  be  either  east 
or  west,  more  often  the  former,  and  includes  every  form  of  outrage  and 
oppression  that  workers  can  know.  Competition  has  sharpened  wits  till  the 
Christian  has  acquired  every  art  of  the  Jew,  and  grinds  his  victims  with  a 
composure  born  of  the  fact  that  they  are  merely  parts  of  the  great  producing 
machine. 


148  International  Council  of  Women. 

As  an  illustration  of  some  difficulties  to  be  faced  by  our  skilled  workers, 
I  give  a  few  of  the  methods  practiced  by  a  large  firm  on  Canal  street,  whose 
trade-mark  is  well  known  as  the  sign  oC  good  work,  and  whose  prosperity  is 
in  always  increasing  ratio.  Like  many  other  firms,  they  had  at  first  manu- 
factured on  the  premises,  but  discovered  that  this  was  quite  an  unnecessary 
expense.  A  roof  over  the  heads  of  more  than  a  hundred  women,  with  space 
for  their  machines,  meant  not  less  than  $2,500  a  year  to  be  deducted  from 
the  profits.  The  simple  way  out  of  this  difficulty  was  to  make  the  women 
themselves  pay  the  rent,  not  in  any  tangible  imposition  of  tax,  but  none  the 
less  certainly  in  fact.  Nothing  could  be  plainer.  Manufacturing  on  the 
premises  had  only  to  cease,  and  it  could  even  be  put  as  a  favor  to  the 
women  that  they  were  allowed  to  work  at  home.  This  rule  was  established 
at  once;  and,  having  stopped  this  leak,  they  turned  to  fresh  possibilities, 
discovering  at  once  another  method.  The  women  were  told  that  hencefor- 
ward all  packages  of  work  would  be  sent  from  the  cutting-room  direct  at  a 
charge  of  only  fifteen  cents  a  package  for  express.  A  few  of  the  bolder  ones 
remonstrated,  saying  they  could  come  for  theirs,  but  were  silenced  instantly 
by  a  word  they  knew  only  too  well.  "  There  are  plenty  waiting  to  take  our 
terms  if  you  don't  like  them.  It  suits  us  best  to  send  the  packages  from 
here." 

In  the  meantime  the  firm  arranged  with  the  head  of  a  small  express  con- 
cern to  deliver  the  goods  at  twelve  cents  a  package,  thus  adding  to  the 
weekly  receipts  a  clear  gain  of  three  cents  per  head.  Firm  and  ex- 
pressman, it  hardly  need  be  said,  played  into  each  other's  hands,  the  wagon- 
drivers  having  no  knowledge  of  anything  beyond  the  fact  that  they  were  to 
collect  the  fifteen  cents  and  to  turn  them  over  to  their  superiors.  In  some 
way  the  real  state  of  the  case  became  known,  but  no  one  dared  remonstrate 
any  more  than  when,  a  few  weeks  later,  it  also  leaked  out  that  the  firm 
charged  five  cents  a  dozen  more  than  it  cost  them,  on  the  thread.  Last,  came 
a  change  in  the  method  of  payment,  which  hitherto  had  been  made  at  the 
desk  when  work  was  brought  in.  Now  checks  were  given  on  a  Bowery  bank, 
and,  in  heat  or  storm  alike,  the  women  must  walk  over  and  wait  their  turn 
in  the  long  line  on  the  benches,  thus  sacrificing  from  half  an  hour  to  an  hour 
of  time,  their  only  capital.  As  the  case  now  stands,  then,  for  this  firm, 
which  represents  the  system  adopted  by  many,  the  working  woman  not  only 
pays  the  rent  that  would  be  required  for  factory,  but  gives  it  a  profit  on 
expressage,  thread,  time  lost  in  going  to  bank,  and  often  the  price  of  a  dozen 
garments,  payment  for  the  dozen  being  deducted  by  many  foremen  if  there 
is  a  flaw  in  one.  The  foreman  becomes  the  scapegoat  if  any  questions  are 
asked,  the  usual  statement  being,  if  the  women's  difficulties  are  mentioned, 
"  Oh  !  that  was  before  the  last  foreman  left ;  we  discharged  him  as  soon  as 
we  found  out  how  he  had  served  the  women." 

A  favorite  method,  known  to  many  firms,  is  advertising  for  women  and 


Industries.  149 

girls  to  learn  the  trade.  The  applicant  who  comes  in  answer  to  such  ad- 
vertisement is  anxious  to  learn  at  once,  and  gives  her  best  intelligence  to 
mastering  every  detail.  Into  her  first  week  she  puts  an  energy  of  effort  that 
could  hardly  last,  and  often  she  is  beguiled  by  small  payments  and  large 
promisestinto  continuing  weeks  and  even  months,  always  expecting  the  always 
delayed  payment. 

With  the  question  of  overtime  ;  of  the  determined  and  rooted  prejudice 
against  substituting  household  service  for  the  long  hours  at  the  machine ;  of 
the  absolute  ignorance  of  how  to  make  the  best  and  most  of  the  scanty  wages, 
and  to  provide  something  more  nourishing  from  it  than  the  rank  tea,  boiled 
to  extract  the  last  tinge  of  strength,  and  the  baker's  bread,  most  often  but- 
terless,  I  do  not  propose  to  speak.  My  business  is  simply  to  give  you  certain 
phases  of  the  case  as  it  stands  for  the  working  woman  in  all  our  large  cities, 
with  a  glance  at  comparative  conditions  abroad.  Naturally,  the  evils  I  have 
specified  press  most  hardly  on  the  untrained  workers,  the  woman  of  skill  and 
some  education  being  fairly  certain  of  a  living.  But  competition  has  less- 
ened the  possibilities  even  for  this  woman,  while  for  the  grade  below  it  has 
brought  wages  to  the  lowest  point  of  subsistence,  and  we  face  an  army  of 
haggard,  weary,  hopeless  wretches,  too  exhausted  and  depleted  by  long- 
continued  labor  for  progress. 

The  question  for  this  order  of  worker  is  not  for  us  alone,  but  for  all  civili- 
zation. It  had  not  seemed  possible  that  the  other  side  of  the  sea  could 
know  anything  so  deplorable  as  the  conditions  that  faced  one  in  the  attics 
and  basements  of  the  tenement-house  district  in  New  York,  and  to  know  how 
the  case  really  stood,  and  if  any  advantage  was  on  one  side,  it  seemed  neces- 
sary to  make  the  same  search  in  London,  and  in  some  degree  on  the  Con- 
tinent. Six  months  in  London  have  partially  answered  the  question,  and 
writing  to-day  in  Paris  it  is  plain  that,  given  all  differences  of  national  tem- 
perament and  custom,  the  story  is  practically  the  same  for  all.  London  is 
the  first  consideration  in  such  attempt,  not  only  because  it  leads  in  numbers, 
but  because  our  own  conditions  are  in  many  points  an  inheritance  which 
crossed  the  sea  with  the  Pilgrims  and  is  in  every  drop  of  Anglo-Saxon 
blood. 

It  became  certain  in  the  beginning  of  the  London  experience,  and  time 
simply  confirmed  the  fact,  that  the  English  working  woman  has  not  only  the 
disabilities  which  her  American  sister  faces — some  inherent  in  herself  and  as 
many  arising  from  the  press  of  the  present  system — but,  added  to  this,  the 
apparent  incapacity  of  the  employers  to  see  that  she  has  rights  of  any  de- 
scription whatsoever.  The  factory  act  limiting  time,  and  the  various 
attempts  to  legislate  in  behalf  of  women  and  children,  strike  the  average 
employer  as  gross  interference  with  constitutional  rights.  Where  he  can,  he 
evades.  Where  he  can  not  he  is  apt  to  grow  purple  over  the  impertinence 
of  meddling  reformers  who  can  not  let  well  enough  alone.     He  stands  in 


1 50  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  way  of  all  investigation,  and  nothing  could  well  be  more  difficult  than  to 
determine  the  actual  position  of  the  worker.  In  every  trade,  however,  one 
fact  is  at  once  clear,  and  that  is  that  overtime  is  taken  as  a  right,  and  any 
protest  against  it  is  simply  absurd.  From  8  A.  M.  to  8  P.  M.  is  the  usual  day, 
stretching  often  to  io  o'clock,  and  this  applies  to  every  trade  open  to  women, 
while  in  many,  if  there  is  special  press  of  work,  the  hours  extend  indefinitely, 
a  few  houses  giving  from  four  to  eight  cents  an  hour  for  overtime.  The  wage 
paid  is  in  increase  ratio  to  the  hours  required.  A  pound  a  week  is  regarded 
as  a  fortune,  and  the  majority  of  needle-women  of  the  same  grade  as  those 
dealt  with  in  the  opening  of  this  paper  receive  from  eight  to  twelve  shillings; 
nor  is  there  any  indication  that  the  scale  will  rise,  or  that  better  days  are  in 
store  for  one  of  these  toilers. 

Here  and  there  a  spasmodic  attempt  is  made  to  discover  their  actual  con- 
dition, but  London  has  no  statistics  of  labor  in  the  sense  of  the  admirable 
work  of  our  own  State  boards,  all  facts  being  locked  up  in  almost  inacces- 
sible Blue  Books.  London,  also,  is  far  behind  other  cities  in  every  point 
affecting  the  well-being  of  operatives  of  every  class.  The  great  manufact- 
uring cities  of  England  are  doing  much  to  lighten  oppressive  conditions  and 
give  some  possibility  of  improvement.  The  attitude  of  the  London  em- 
ployer is  therefore  all  the  more  puzzling.  It  is  marked  by  indifference  to 
a  brutal  degree,  and  wages  are  at  the  lowest  and  profits  at  the  highest  attain- 
able point.  It  is  true  that  he  is  driven  by  a  force  often  quite  beyond  his 
control — foreign  competition,  French  and  German,  being  no  less  sharp  than 
that  on  his  own  soil.  He  must  study  chances  of  profit  to  a  farthing,  and  in 
such  study  there  is  naturally  small  thought  of  his  workers,  save  as  hands  in 
which  the  farthings  may  be  found.  Many  a  woman  goes  to  her  place  of 
work  leaving  behind  her  children  who  have  breakfasted  with  her  on  "kettle- 
broth,"  and  will  be  happy  if  the  same  is  certain  at  supper  time. 

"There's  six  of  us  has  had  naught  but  kettle-broth  for  a  fortnight,"  said 
one.  "You  know  what  that  is?  It's  half  a  quarter. loaf  soaked  in  hot  water 
with  a  ha'p'orth  of  drippings  and  a  spoonful  of  salt.  When  you've  lived  on 
that  night  and  morning  for  a  week  or  two  you  can't  help  but  long  for  a 
change,  though,  God  forgive  me,  there's  them  that  fares  worse.  But  wages 
is  down  out  of  sight,  and  maybe  it'll  be  the  broth  without  the  bread  before 
we're  through.  There's  no  living  to  be  had  in  Old  England  any  more,  and 
yet  the  rich  folks  don't  want  less.  Do  you  know  how  it  is  ma'am  ?  Is  there 
any  chance  of  better  times,  do  you  think  ?  Is  it  that  they  want  us  to  starve  ? 
I've  heard  that  said,  but  some  how  it  seems  as  if  there  must  be  hearts  still, 
and  they'll  see  soon,  and  then  things  '11  be  different.  Oh,  yes!  they  must 
be  different." 

Will  they  be  different  ?  It  is  unskilled  workers  who  have  just  spoken,  but 
do  the  skilled  fare  much  better  ?  Here  is  a  portion  of  a  table  of  earnings 
prepared  a  year  or  two  since  by  the  chaplain  of  the  Clerkenwell  Prison,  an 


Industries.  151 

earnest  missionary  among  the  poor,  this  table  ranking  as  one  of  the  best  of  the 
few  attemps  to  discover  the  actual  position  of  the  working  woman  at  present. 
Making  paper  bags,  4^4d.  to  5^d.  per  thousand;  possible  earnings,  5s. 
to  9s.  a  week.  Buttonholes,  3d.  per  dozen  ;  possible  earnings,  8s.  per 
week.  Shirts,  2d.  each,  worker  finding  her  own  cotton  ;  can  get  six  done 
between  6  A.  M.  and  11  P.  M.  Sack-sewing,  6d.  for  twenty-five,  8d.  to  is. 
6d.  per  hundred  ;  possible  earnings,  7s.  per  week.  Pill-box  making,  is.  for 
thirty-six  gross ;  possible  earnings,  is.  3d.  a  day.  Collar  buttonhole  mak- 
ing, is.  per  dozen  ;  can  do  three  or  four  dozen  between  5  A.  M.  and  dark. 
Whip  making,  is.  per  dozen  ;  can  do  a  dozen  a  day.  Trouser  finishing,  3d. 
to  5d.  each,  finding  own  cotton  ;  can  do  four  per  day.  Shirt  finishing,  3d. 
to  4d.  per  dozen.     So  the  list  runs  on  through  all  the  trades  open  to  women. 

Nor  is  the  outlook  much  better  in  sunny  Paris,  though  the  Frenchwoman 
starves  more  smilingly  than  her  London  sister  shrouded  in  fog.  From 
Germany,  Belgium,  Italy,  and  every  country  where  women  are  at  work, 
comes  the  same  wail,  and  the  cry  of  the  London  toilers  is  the  cry  of  all : 
"  There  must  be  hearts,  still,  and  they  '11  see  soon,  and  then  things  '11  be 
different.  Oh,  yes,  they  must  be  different."  Will  they  be  different? 
Never,  unless  we  who  come  to  freedom  and  knowledge  and  all  that  makes 
life  worth  living  know  that  no  one  of  these  possessions  is  truly  ours  unless 
its  possibility  dawns  also  for  these  weak  ones  whose  stumbling  feet  have  yet 
no  path  in  which  they  may  walk  securely.  I  shall  urge  no  method,  apply  no 
precept  of  political  economy.  To  each  must  be  the  action  which  seems  just 
to  her  own  soul.  But  the  laborer  has  fallen  on  evil  days.  The  old  joy  in 
labor  is  dead.  Its  resurrection  can  come  only  through  us,  who  listen  and 
wonder,  it  may  be,  why  philanthropy  has  not  settled  such  questions ;  and 
if  not  philanthropy,  then  why  not  the  State  or  the  church  ? 

Not  one  nor  all  of  these  can  do  the  needed  work.  It  is  a  change  of  ideals 
that  is  needed ;  a  simplification  of  all  living ;  a  refusal  to  own  any  good 
which  can  not  be  shared,  and  the  solemn  purpose  to  make  larger  life  possi- 
ble, not  only  for  those  who  crave  it,  but  for  those  who  may  even  reject  it. 
It  is  because  all  are  parts  of  one  great  whole  that  real  progress  will  be  impos- 
sible till  the  new  ideal  reaches  out  to  and  enfolds  all ;  till  competition  and 
the  baseness  born  of  it  retreat  to  the  shadow  from  whence  they  came,  and 
co-operation  in  its  largest,  noblest  sense  is  the  law  of  life — the  fulfillment  of 
the  old  word  spoken  long  ago,  yet  vital  as  in  its  first  hour,  "Bear  ye  one 
another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ."  This  was  the  word  of 
one  who  toiled  with  his  own  hands  and  ate  only  the  fruit  of  his  own  labor ; 
but  side  by  side  with  it  may  stand  the  word  of  one  whose  simple  nobleness 
is  also  our  lesson  : 

"  But  laying  hands  on  another 
To  coin  his  labor  and  sweat, 
He  goes  in  pawn  to  his  victim 
For  eternal  years  in  debt." 


152  International  Council  of  Women. 

Mrs.  Johns.  We  have  with  us  Mrs.  Lita  Barney  Sayles,  the  General  Sec- 
retary of  this  Society,  who  is  also  editor  of  The  Co-operative  News  of  America. 

"CO-OPERATION,    THE    LAW   OF   THE    NEW   CIVILIZATION." 

Mrs.  Sayles.  I  have  the  honor  of  presenting  to  this  International  Coun- 
cil of  Women  a  brief  statement  of  the  work  and  principles  of  the  Sociologic 
'Society  of  America.  This  organization  dates  from  the  spring  of  1882.  It 
was  formed  exclusively  by  women,  and  had  its  inception  in  a  course  of  par- 
lor lectures  given  by  its  president,  Mrs.  Imogene  C.  Fales,  of  New  York,  on 
"  Industrial  Co-operation."  In  addition  to  the  usual  officers  of  such  socie- 
ties this  has  a  co-operation  board  and  branch  societies  in  various  cities,  its 
headquarters  being  in  New  York.  Its  work  is  educational,  and  is  carried 
on  by  means  of  conferences,  public  and  parlor  meetings,  and  the  dissemi- 
nation of  its  principles  by  means  of  leaflets,  correspondence,  and  the  publi- 
cation of  a  quarterly  sheet,  The  Co-operative  News  of  America. 

The  work  is,  however,  no  longer  confined  to  women,  but  men  practically 
interested  in  various  forms  of  co-operative  industry  have  become  mem- 
bers, and  are  actively  endeavoring  to  unite  in  a  national  co-operative  board 
the  scattered,  unrelated  industries  of  the  country.  The  movement  contains 
within  itself  the  germs  of  an  international  alliance  for  the  promotion  of  co- 
operative organization  and  preservation  of  social  peace.  In  pursuance  of  this 
phase  of  the  work  the  president,  Mrs.  Fales,  visited  England  last  May  and 
attended,  as  delegate  from  the  American  Co-operative  Bo?rd,  the  Nineteenth 
Annual  Congress  of  the  Co-operators  of  the  United  Kingdom.  Her  plea  was 
for  a  great  educational  system  to  propagate  the  principles  of  co-operation. 
She  was  ably  seconded  in  her  efforts  by  M.  de  Boyve,  who  represented  eighty- 
five  organized  co-operative  bodies  of  France.  The  congress  was  held  at  Car- 
lisle, and  was  attended  by  over  590  delegates. 

The  result  of  thdse  united  efforts  was  the  formation  of  an  International 
Co-operative  Alliance,  composed  of  representatives  from  the  boards  of  En- 
gland, France,  Italy,  and  the  United  States.  As  an  illustration  of  the  success 
of  distributive  co-operation,  we  point  to  the  Rochdaje  system,  which  was 
inaugurated  in  England  forty-four  years  ago  by  twenty-eight  poor  weavers. 
The  annual  report  of  the  chief  register  shows  that  984  societies  made  official 
returns  to  the  central  board  in  1885,  and  that  the  membership  of  these  soci- 
eties was  about  682,000,  their  sales  for  the  year  amounting  to  $424,000,000. 
George  Jacob  Holyoake,  in  a  recent  letter,  says:  "  Distributive  co-operation 
is  well  established  and  extending.  Leeds,  for  instance,  has  about  20,000 
members.  It  has  so  many  branch  stores  and  is  so  continually  erecting  new 
ones  that  they  keep  a  staff  of  builders,  who  move  from  place  to  place  as  new 
stores  have  to  be  built.  During  the  last  twenty  years  the  business  done  co- 
operatively by  workingmen  in  Great  Britain  is  estimated  at  twelve  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  of  dollars,  the  profits  of  which,  about  one  hundred  million 
dollars,  have  gone  back  into  their  own  pockets." 


Industries.  153 

Out  of  the  retail  stores  has  grown  the  wholesale,  with  its  trading  capital  of 
nearly  $4,000,000,  and  now  productive  co-operation,  with  the  men  as  their 
own  employers,  is  developing  naturally  from  these  conditions.  It  is  not 
generally  known  that  the  most  prosperous  cotton-mills  in  Great  Britain  are 
those  run  on  co-operative  principles  at  Oldham,  with  $27,000,000  of  capital. 
The  outfit  represents  more  spindles  than  there  are  in  Russia,  Italy,  Spain, 
and  Austria,  and  nearly  as  many  as  in  Germany  and  France. 

Turn  for  a  moment  from  the  consideration  of  the  economic  to  the  moral 
value  of  the  co-operative  principle.  In  the  letter  from  Mr.  Holyoake,  above 
referred  to,  he  says  :  "  When  I  first  knew  Rochdale,  all  the  working  people 
needed  relief.  All  who  could  get  it  had  it,  and  the  chief  hope  of  others  was 
that  the  work-house  might  not  be  too  full  when  their  turn  came.  Now  they 
subscribe  to  the  relief  funds,  to  hospitals,  present  fountains  to  the  town,  and 
in  all  things  give  like  gentlemen.  It  is  in  this  manner  that  co-operation,  by 
ameliorating  social  conditions,  transforms  the  old  civilization  and  brings  in 
a  new  order  of  things.  Mindful  of  the  old  adage,  "  nothing  succeeds  like 
success,"  the  Sociologic  Society  seeks  to  show,  by  dwelling  upon  assured 
facts  in  other  countries,  what  can  be  done  also  in  ours  to  lighten  the  burden 
of  life  and  institute  better  industrial  and  social  conditions  among  the  people. 
It  believes,  with  Thomas  Hughes,  that  if  co-operation  in  twenty-five  years 
made  life  easier  for  three  millions  of  English  people,  should  it  not  in  fifty 
years  do  this  far  more  perfectly  for  ten  millions,  and  that  what  may  be  done 
for  this  number  may,  in  time,  be  done  for  a  nation? 

The  Sociologic  Society  of  America  is  teaching  the  practical  adaptation 
of  the  Golden  Rule  to  trade,  and  showing  the  results  of  peace  and  prosper- 
ity that  will  necessarily  flow  therefrom ;  that  co-operation  is  the  practical 
•expression  of  the  law  of  mutual  helpfulness  by  which  we  are  morally  bound 
to  our  neighbor,  as  it  is  a  religious  as  well  as  an  economic  principle.  That 
social  development  is  contingent  upon  individual  development ;  individual 
development  is  through  intellectual  and  moral  activity,  and  these  in  turn 
rest  upon  a  physical  basis,  which  demands,  in  order  that  life  shall  be  prop- 
erly sustained,  a  just  compensation  for  labor.  That  the  starting  point, 
therefore,  of  social  reformation  is  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor.  The 
basis  of  social  life  must  be  the  moral  law,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself,"  which,  economically  expressed,  is,  "Thou  shalt  make  thy  neigh- 
bor's interests  identical  with  thine  own." 

Mrs.  Johns.  You  will  now  be  addressed  by  Leonora  M.  Barry,  delegate 
and  organizer  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  whose  credentials  are  signed  by  Gen- 
eral Master  Workman  T.  V.  Powderly. 

WHAT  THE  KNiGHTS  OF  LABOR  ARE  DOING  FOR  WOMEN. 

The  Knights  of  Labor  are  a  body  of  men  organized  for  protection  and 
education,  that  they  may  be  the  better  able  to  cope  with    the    scheming 
11  » 


154  International  Council  of  Women. 

means  resorted  to  by  those  who  live  upon  the  proceeds  of  their  toil,  and 
subtract  from  labor  so  large  a  portion  of  labor's  rights.  The  Knights  of 
Labor  were  organized  openly  in  1879.  F°r  several  years  they  existed  in 
secrecy,  because  they  feared  that  terrible  weapon  so  unmercifully  used 
upon  the  employees — the  black  list.  Fearing  that,  they  kept  many  years, 
in  secret ;  but  after  having  become  so  compact  and  strong,  after  having 
the  gospel  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  taught  from  Maine  to  Oregon,  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  over  in  the  Old  World,  they  then  made  known 
their  aims,  which  were  to  abolish  poverty,  to  demand  that  moral  and  indus- 
trial worth  and  not  wealth  be  made  the  standard  of  national  and  individual 
greatness.  Those  poor  working  men,  the  tin-pail  brigade,  the  seventy-two 
thousand  miners  of  Pennsylvania,  the  hundreds  and  thousands  of  unskilled 
workmen,  those  people  recognized  what  your  legislators,  what  your  pulpits,, 
what  your  press  have  failed  to  recognize  within  all  the  years  of  vour  agita- 
tion— woman's  right  to  equitable  consideration  by  the  side  of  men  in  the  na- 
tion's government.  Having  recognized  this,  they  inserted  in  the  platform 
of  principles  that  plank  which  demands  equal  pay  for  equal  work ;  and  ere 
many  more  years  have  passed  over  our  heads,  there  will  be  another  plank 
inserted  not  only  in  the  platform  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  but  upon  the 
statute-books  of  our  country,  making  it  a  criminal  offense  for  any  man  to 
dare  employ  a  woman  at  less  remuneration  for  labor  than  will  enable  her  to 
procure  the  comforts  of  life  without  necessitating  temptation  to  sin.  The 
Knights  of  Labor  are  elevating  the  conditions  of  men  ;  teaching  them  self- 
respect  ;  their  duty  to  themselves  and  each  other.  We  are  building  around 
our  working  girls  a  wall  of  protection  to  defend  them  from  the  indignities 
which  heretofore  they  have  been  subjected  to,  such  as  making  the  price  of 
their  honor  the  possibility  of  a  place  to  earn  their  livelihood. 

We  are  trying  to  teach  the  outside  world  that  the  working  woman  has 
feelings,  has  sensitiveness,  has  her  heart's  longings  and  desires  for  the  better 
things  of  life,  and  any  socialor  industrial  system  or  environment  that  pre- 
vents woman  from  enjoying  those  gifts  of  a  common  Father  must  be  broken, 
because  it  is  utterly  false.  Any  condition  of  society  that  prevents  woman 
or  child  from  cultivating  the  three  elements  of  which  humanity  is  composed — 
the  moral,  physical,  and  mental — that  state  of  society  is  false,  and  it  becomes 
the  duty  of  every  honest  man  and  woman,  I  care  not  what  their  station  in 
life,  to  try  to  overturn  it.  There  are  no  better  law  supporters,  no  more  loyal 
citizens  true  to  the  laws  of  their  country  and  their  country's  flag  than  the 
organized  working  men  and  women  of  to-day.  They  do  not  demand  revo- 
lution, but  they  do  demand  reform  ;  they  do  not  ask  it  by  the  power  of 
physical  force ;  they  do  not  ask  it  by  the  destruction  of  life  or  property ; 
they  simply  ask  it  at  the  hands  of  the  law-making  bodies  of  their  nation. 
And  as  we,  the  people,  are  the  law-making  bodies,  and  those  whom  we  send 
to  the  legislative  halls  are  but  our  servants,  we,  the  women  in  the  Knights- 


Industries.  155 

of  Labor,  are  educating  our  men  to  know  what   the  ballot  means,  not  only 
for  the  working  man,  but  for  the  working  man's  wife  and  sister. 

Seven  years  ago  I  was  left  without  knowledge  of  business,  without  knowledge 
of  work,  without  knowledge  of  what  the  world  was,  with  three  fatherless 
children  looking  to  me  for  bread.  To  support  these  children  it  became 
my  duty  to  go  out  in  the  army  of  the  employed  and  in  one  of  the  largest 
factories  in  central  New  York.  I  went,  and  for  four  years  and  seven -months 
remained  a  factory  woman  for  the  support  of  my  little  ones.  Four  years  ago 
this  spring  I  became  a  Knight  of  Labor.  I  became  a  member  of  an  as- 
sembly of  1,500  women.  Of  those  1,500  women  from  the  withdrawing  of 
what  is  called  trades  assembly — women  of  one  particular  trade  or  calling — I 
became  the  master  workman  of  an  assembly  of  927  women,  ranging  from 
14  years  of  age  to  60.  And  let  me  say  to  you  here  that  although  there  was 
not  one  amongst  them  could  boast  of  more  than  a  minor  part  of  a  common 
school  education,  yet  in  that  body  of  women  there  was  more  executive 
ability,  more  tact,  more  shrewdness,  more  keen,  calculating  power  than 
could  be  found  in  twice  that  number  of  men  in  the  United  States. 

I  was  sent  from  my  assembly,  composed  entirely  of  women,  to  the  District 
Assembly,  No.  65,  which  met  in  the  city  of  Albany  ;  from  that  district  I  was 
sent  to  Richmond,  Va.,  a  delegate  to  the  General  Assembly,  and  from  there 
I  was  sent  into  the  world  to  educate  my  sister  working  women  and  the 
public  generally  as  to  their  needs  and  necessities.  We  are  instituting 
co-operative  industries  throughout  the  breadth  and  length  of  our  land — the 
industries  in  which  women  are  engaged — taking  those  we  find  in  the  most 
helpless  condition,  and  from  becoming  operatives  in  those  factories  they 
eventually  become  shareholders.  In  the  city  of  Chicago,  a  tailoring  estab- 
lishment was  started.  A  few  girls  were  locked  out  because  they  went  to  a 
labor  parade.  It  was  a  breach  of  discipline,  but  they  did  not  deserve  so 
severe  a  punishment.  They  came  back,  and  by  soliciting  subscriptions  by 
every  means  in  their  power  they  raised  $400,  with  $100  of  which  they  paid 
a  month's  rent  and  started  with  $3°°  capital.  Inside  of  nine  months  those  ' 
few  men  and  women  in  that  co-operative  tailoring  establishment  at  882  Fifth 
avenue,  Chicago,  111.,  have  done  $36,000  worth  of  business.  We  have  our 
co-operative  shirt  factories  in  Baltimore  and  New  York,  conducted  solely  by 
women  ;  we  have  our  collar  and  cuff  factories  in  Waterford,  N.  Y.  ;  we  have 
our  co-operative  knitting  mill  at  Little  Falls,  N.  Y.,  and  many  other  indus- 
tries. And  I  am  at  this  time  negotiating  with  Nashville,  Tenn.,  for  the 
institution  of  co-operative  industry  for  the  manufacture  of  women's  and 
children's  underwear,  at  which  our  poor  unfortunate  sisters  in  New  York 
suffer  more  than  can  be  imagined  any  human  being  might  suffer  under  a  slop- 
shop system  of  work  in  New  York  city. 

I  have,  during  my  connection  with  the  organization,  instituted  what  is 
known  as  the  Working  Women's  National  Beneficial  Fund.     This  gives  to 


156  International  Council  of  Women. 

women  in  sickness  not  less  than  $3  nor  more  than  $5  per  week,  and  in  case 
of  death  not  less  than  $75  nor  more  than  $100.  It  gives  protection  to  every 
woman,  whether  she  be  a  Knight  of  Labor  or  not,  for  it  is  the  duty,  the  aim, 
and  the  object  of  Knights  of  Labor  to  elevate  woman,  no  matter  what 
her  nationality,  her  creed,  her  color,  or  her  position  in  life.  The  Knights  of 
Labor  are  taking  the  little  girls  from  the  factory,  the  workshop,  and  the 
mines,  and  educating  them,  because  we  know  that  the  little  child  of  to-day 
is  the  mother  of  the  future.  As  these  are  the  children  of  to-day,  and  as 
these  shall  be  the  working  women  of  the  future,  we  demand  that  they  shall 
be  taken  from  the  workshop,  factory,  and  the  mine  and  put  into  the  school- 
rooms to  be  educated.  If  there  is  any  one  State  for  which  I  might  make  a 
special  plea  it  is  that  monopoly-bound  State  of  Pennsylvania,  with  her  125,- 
000  children  under  the  age  of  fifteen  employed  in  the  workshops,  factories 
and  mines. 

While  you  are  looking  to  the  literary  attainments  of  these  women ; 
while  you  are  mounting  to  your  position  at  the  top  of  the  ladder,  do 
'  not,  I  ask  you,  in  the  name  of  justice,  in  the  name  of  humanity,  do  not 
forget  to  give  your  attention  and  some  of  your  assistance  to  the  root  of 
all  evil,  the  industrial  and  social  system  that  is  so  oppressive,  which  has 
wrought  the  chain  of  circumstances  in  which  so  many  have  become  entan- 
gled, and  which  has  brought  the  once  tenderly-cherished  and  protected 
wife,  the  once  fondly-loved  mother  to  the  position  of  the  twelve  or  fourteen- 
hour  toiler  of  to-day.  If  you  would  protect  the  wives  and  mothers  of  the 
future  from  this  terrible  condition  we  find  these  in  to-day,  give  them  your 
assistance.  The  Knights  of  Labor  may  have  made  mistakes,  but  they  are 
the  mistakes  of  those  who  started  out  with  a  dim  knowledge  of  their  object 
before  their  eyes  and  do  not  see  their  way  clear  to  reach  it,  but  by  education 
and  by  help,  the  black  list,  the  boycott,  the  strike,  and  the  lock-out  shall 
soon  be  swept  away  into  the  dark  ages  where  they  belong,  and  no  longer 
be  found  under  the  stars  and  stripes  of  our  American  flag. 

Mrs.  Johns.  The  next  speaker  is  Mrs.  Esther  L.  Warner,  who  has  been 
for  twenty  years  a  practical  farmer  in  Nebraska,  has  educated  and  supported 
her  children,  and  paid  for  her  mile-square  farm  j  hence  she  is  eminently  able 
to  speak  about 

WOMEN   AS   FARMERS. 

Mrs.  Warner — 

"  He  that  by  the  plow  would  thrive, 
Himself  must  either  hold  or  drive." 

This  old  couplet  intimates  that  muscle  is  the  main  element  of  success  in 

farming,  but  modern  improvements  have  changed  all  that,  and  what  is  needed 

now  to  succeed  in  agriculture  is  a  guiding  force  to  direct  men  and  machinery. 

Can  women  act  as  this  guiding  force  ?     They  have  demonstrated  their  ability 

to  acquire  theoretical  knowledge  in  all  the  departments  of  science  and  the 

arts  as  taught  in  the  schools. 


Industries.  157 

Agriculture  is  not  higher  than  astronomy,  nor  deeper  than  geology,  nor  more 
complicated  than  chemistry.  To  understand  something  of  the  nature  of 
different  soils,  to  learn  the  proper  depth  to  cut  the  turf  in  breaking  prairie, 
what  rotation  ,of  crops  will  produce  the  best  results,  and  how  to  plant  pota- 
toes, must  be  supposed  to  come  within  the  range  of  woman's  capacity.  But 
knowledge  is  not  always  power.  To  be  able  to  "  say  to  this  one  go  and  he 
goeth,  and  to  another  come  and  he  cometh,  and  to  a  servant  do  this  and  he 
doeth  it,"  is  an  important  aid  in  carrying  on  successfully  any  business. 

Farming  requires  a  talent  for  managing  men,  and  if  we  are  to  credit  the 
assertions  of  our  gentlemen  friends  women  as  a  class  do  not  lack  in  that 
direction;  but  your  speaker  confesses  having  been  an  ignominious  failure  in, 
trying  to  manage  men  who  needed  managing.  Her  only  resource  was  to 
find,  if  possible,  those  who  chose  to  do  right,  and  then  let  them  do  as 
they  pleased.  The  numerous  women  who  have  deserted  school-rooms  for. 
farms  may  be  supposed  to  have  learned,  by  trying  their  "  'prentice  hands" 
on  boys,  how  to  exercise  a  controlling  influence  over  boys  of  larger  growth, 
and  it  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  many  ex-teachers  are  a  success  as 
farmers.  Experiments  are  being  made  all  over  the  West,  from  Dakota  to 
Texas. 

To  theorize  and  assert  that  a  thing  can  be  done  is  not  so  convincing  as  the 
fact  that  it  has  been  done.  The  large  number  of  women  all  over  the  coun- 
try, North  and  South,  who  have  taken  homesteads  in  Dakota,  Kansas,  and 
Nebraska,  and  the  cattle  queens  of  Texas  and  Colorado,  are  facts,  which 
furnish  their  own  commentary.  And  recently  there  comes  the  story  of  a 
horse  queen  in  Idaho  who  owns  seven  or  eight  hundred  horses,  and  finds 
them- more  profitable  than  cattle-raising  or  wool-growing. 

Another  question  comes  to  us:  Is  farming  as  an  occupation  womanly? 
The  wise  man,  in  describing  the  model  woman,  says:  "She  considereth  a 
field  and  buyeth  it;  with  the  fruit  of  her  hands  she  planteth  a  vineyard ;  " 
and  this  attention  to  outside  interests  does  not  lead  to  neglect  of  the  internal 
arrangements  of  home  or  the  adornment  of  her  person.  "  She  is  not  afraid 
of  the  snow,  for  all  her  household  are  clothed  in  scarlet."  "  She  maketh  for 
herself  coverings  of  tapestry  ;  her  clothing  is  silk  and  purple."  There  is  no 
hint  that  she  is  out  of  her  sphere  and  should  be  remanded  to  the  seclusion  of 
the  kitchen  and  the  nursery.  She  is  not  told  that  her  earnings  belong  to 
her  husband,  or  that  her  individual  life  should  be  merged  in  his.  The 
eulogy  of  the  inspired  writer  closes  with  these  words:  "Give  her  of  the 
fruit  of  her  hands,  and  let  her  own  works  praise  her  in  the  gates." 

.What  is  womanliness?  Is  it  weakness  and  incapacity,  or  is  it  the  best  in- 
stincts of  womanhood  permeating  her  whole  being,  radiating  from  her  per- 
sonality, and  finding  expression  in  all  gentle  courtesies  and  womanly  ways? 
It  is  no  fragile,  evanescent  thing  to  be  blown  away  by  prairie  winds ;  floods 
can  not  drown   it  or  droughts  consume  it.     It  survives  hard  work  ;  and  a 


158  International  Council  of  Women. 

woman  of  refinement  might  choose  o  take  up  "  de  shubble  and  de  hoe" 
laid  down  by  "Poor  Old  Ned"  rather  than  sit  in  "unwomanly  rags," 
singing  the  "  Song  of  the  Shirt." 

When  a  woman  is  thrown  on  her  own  resources  for  support  she  looks  about 
for  something  which  she  can  do.  Progressive  changes  in  the  present  century 
have  thrown  open  to  her  the  whole  range  of  professional,  commercial,  and 
industrial  occupations,  and  the  world  is  all  before  her  where  to  choose  ;  but 
she  must  consider  her  limitations — those  of  circumstances,  of  early  educa- 
tion, and,  most  important  of  all,  the  limitations  of  her  own  character. 
Many  have  invested  their  little  all  in  trade,  and  found  too  late  they  lacked 
the  commercial  instinct,  Many  a  woman  is  totally  unfitted  by  nature 
and  inclination  to  endure  the  friction  and  competition  of  professional 
and  industrial  life.  If  conscious  of  these  limitations  she  looks  for  some- 
thing different.  Her  Father  is  rich — "the  earth  is  his  and  the  fullness 
thereof" — but  she  knows  that  by  the  laws  of  his  paternal  government  his 
children  must  "work  out  their  own  salvation  "  from  physical  want.  She  is 
encouraged  by  the  thought  that  nature  is  no  respecter  of  persons — the  rain 
descends  "alike  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust,"  and  the  "  earth  yields  her 
increase"  to  faithful  tillage,  irrespective  of  sex.  She  reasons  that  as  every- 
thing has  its  uses,  if  she  is  fit  for  nothing  else  she  must  be  good  at  farming. 

Such  logic  has  sent  some  women  West,  myself  among  the  number.  The 
great  majority  of  women  will  always  choose  the  sheltered  places  in  the 
world's  work,  though  the  future  may  show  more  exceptions  to  this  rule  than 
the  past.  It  has  been  said  by  a  well-known  modern  writer  that  "in  an  ideal 
state  of  society  the  outside  work  of  the  world  will  be  largely  performed  by 
men,"  and  we  are  not  inclined  to  dispute  him ;  but  necessity  knows  no  law. 
When  the  civil  war  burst  on  this  country  two  ladies  from  the  North  (sisters) 
were  teaching  in  Louisiana.  The  school  was  discontinued,  but  hostile  armies 
barred  the  way  homeward,  and  Union  sentiments  made  their  stay  unpleasant 
and  even  dangerous.  They  fled  to  Texas,  bought  some  sheep,  a  pony,  and 
a  cabin.  Alternating  with  each  other  in  herding  and  housekeeping,  they 
ran  their  ranch  alone  until  the  profits  enabled  them  to  enlarge  their  business 
and  employ  help.  The  close  of  the  war  found  them  in  easy  circumstances 
and  on  the  road  to  wealth. 

When  the  white  men  of  the  South  were  swallowed  up  in  its  armies  and  the 
slaves  were  released  from  all  obligations  to  their  owners,  women  educated  in 
luxury  and  helplessness  rose  to  the  occasion,  hired  and  directed  the  labor, 
and  saved  their  plantations  from  ruin  and  themselves  and  people  from  starva- 
tion. 

To  many  a  wife  and  mother  who  finds  in  the  internal  arrangements  of  her 
home  and  the  care  of  her  children  congenial  and  sufficient  work  there  comes 
a  time  when  she  must  be  father  and  mother  to  her  children,  and  if  the  finan- 
cial situation  demands  an  addition  to  the  means  for  their  support  and  educa- 


Industries.  159 

tion,  the  question  of  ways  and  means  must  be  considered.  Under  the  stress 
of  such  conditions,  your  speaker,  in  1863,  just  after  the  passage  of  the  home- 
stead bill,  went  West  and  accepted  a  farm  from  Uncle  Sam.  When  the 
family  took  possession,  in  1864,  the  working  force  consisted  of  the  mother, 
two  sons,  aged,  respectively,  fifteen  and  two-and-a-half  years,  and  a  daughter 
of  twelve.  The  head  of  the  enterprise  had  the  experience  of  having  lived 
on  a  farm  the  first  twelve  years  of  her  life,  and  a  determination  to  find  out 
how  to  do  it.  The  eldest  boy  understood  the  care  of  cows  and  horses,  and 
had  a  mind  to  work.  Some  of  the  experiences  of  farming  for  over  twenty 
years,  its  failures  and  successes,  might  be  of  interest,  but  time  forbids.  Suffice 
it  to  say,  we  succeeded  in  raising  as  many  chickens  to  the  acre  as  our  neigh- 
bors, and  when  the  drought  killed  our  trees  we  planted  more.  Grasshoppers 
came  and  we  were  short  on  vegetables,  but  we  never  sent  East  for  help  and  we 
didn't  eat  grasshoppers.  The  experiment  in  farming  still  goes  on  ;  there  is 
a.  firm  consisting  of  mother  and  son.  The  junior  member  acts  as  executive, 
but  the  senior  is  not  a  silent  partner.  The  time  allotted  is  too  short  to  treat 
so  large  a  subject  exhaustively,  and  it  has  been  said  that  statistics  should  be 
seen  and  not  heard.  Persons  interested  who  search  for  these  will  find  ample 
justification  for  placing  among  the  industries  "  women  as  farmers." 

Miss  Anthony.  After  having  seen  the  practical  factory  girl  and  heard 
her  speak  on  this  platform,  and  a  practical  farmer,  I  want  to  tell  you 
that  Mrs.  Warner  is  not  only  a  practical  farmer,  but  a  practical  mother,  too. 
When  we  were  out  in  the  Nebraska  campaign,  six  years  ago,  some  of  the 
University  students  there  thought  they  would  bring  objections  against 
woman's  capacity  to  vote ;  and  in  the  balcony  of  that  theater  sprang  up  a 
young  man  and  made  an  argument  proving  woman's  capacity  not  only  to 
vote,  but  to  act  independently  for  herself  in  every  department  ;  and  that 
young  man  was  a  student  of  the  State  University  of  Nebraska,  and  the 
son  of  this  woman  who  has  just  spoken  to  you.  I  now  show  you  another 
practical  woman,  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Gray  Dow,  the  President  of  the  Dover,  N. 
H.,  Street-Car  Railroad  Company. 

Mrs.  Dow.  I  need  not  say  anything  about  the  horse-railroad,  as  you  have 
all  heard  about  it,  but  I  would  like  to  say  something  that  I  have  done  at 
farming.  I  have,  with  my  own  hands,  set  every  plant  of  the  finest  aspara- 
gus beds  in  our  city ;  have  raised  small  fruits,  gooseberries,  raspberries, 
and  strawberies,  111  abundance. 

Mrs.  Harriet  R.  Robinson,  of  Maiden,  Mass.  I  went  into  a  Lowell 
factory  when  I  was  eleven  years  old,  and  worked  fourteen  hours  a  day.  I 
had  a  dear  mother,  who  gave  me  enough  to  eat,  and  took  good  care  that 
I  had  sleep  enough,  and  so  it  did  not  harm  me.  I  went  to  the  factory  in 
the  morning  at  5  o'clock,  worked  two  hours,  and  then  ran  out  for  my  break- 
fast— a  half-hour,  perhaps — then  went  back  for  six  hours  more,  and  so 
the  thing  went  on  until  7  o'clock  at  night.  I  stayed  there  for  eleven  years, 
until  I  was  married. 


160  International  Council  of  Women. 

I  remember  the  old  life  well.  How  good  it  was,  and  how  many  good 
women  came  there  to  work !  because  then  women  could  not  make  a  living, 
anywhere  but  in  the  factory.  And  so  I  think  some  of  the  best  women  came 
to  Lowell;  women  who  had  not  a  single  hope  in  the  wo  rid ;  widows  who 
were  then  called  "relicts,"  all  sorts  of  women  you  speak  of  here — old  maids 
and  poor  women  with  no  position,  whose  fathers  had  left  them  nothing  but 
the  right  to  live  on  the  farm  as  an  incumbrance.  But  they  finally  heard  of 
the  Lowell  factory  and  came  there.  And,  oh,  how  hopeless  they  were !  But 
the  first  money  they  earned  !  When  they  felt  the  jingle  of  the  silver  in  their 
pocket,  then  for  the  first  time,  their  heads  became  erect  and  they  walked  as 
if  on  air.  And  how  they  spent  it !  They  dressed  themselves,  and  had  books 
for  which  they  had  longed,  and  the  new  life  for  them  had  begun.  They 
learned  to  express  their  thoughts,  and  the  lady  is  here  on  the  platform  whose 
husband  was  the  best  friend  and  helper  those  w^men  ever  knew.  He  did  a 
great  work  for  the  women  of  New  England.  I  consider  the  Lowell  factory 
my  alma  mater.  I  am  just  as  proud  of  it  as  many  women  are  of  the  colleges 
in  which  they  have  been  educated. 

We  had  a  magazine  called  the  Lowell  Offering,  and  read  our  articles  we 
had  written  for  it  to  Mr.  Thomas,  and  he  used  to  correct  them  for  us  if  they 
needed  it.  I  have  written  about  it  in  the  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics 
of  Labor  of  Massachusetts.  Among  those  girls  are  many  known  to  fame. 
There  were  many  who  wrote  books ;  some  have  written  poems.  Lucy  Lar- 
com,  whom  you  all  know,  who  really  has  a  national  fame,  was  one  of  these. 
She  went  there  day  after  day  with  the  rest  of  us,  and  worked  and  earned  her 
living  while  she  wrote  her  poems.  Many  of  these  authors  went  into  other 
fields  of  labor.  I  became  a  reformer,  because  it  seemed  to  me  to  be  of  more 
importance  to  help  my  race  than  it  was  to  write  verse,  although  I  must  con- 
fess that  I  like  to  write  verses. 

I  had  many  experiences  in  my  child  life  in  the  Lowell  mills;  one  of  them 
was  to  learn  to  be  a  striker.  At  1 1  years  of  age  I  struck.  I  was  a  little 
doffer.  I  was  so  young  and  small  that  I  was  allowed  to  run  out  part  of  the 
hour  when  we  were  not  busy  taking  off  the  full  bobbins  and  replacing  them 
with  others.  This  had  to  be  done  exactly  on  the  hour.  And  in  that  way  I 
was  taught  to  be  prompt.  The  strike  happened  in  this  way :  It  was  one  of 
the  first  ones  in  this  country,  I  think,  and  occurred  in  1836.  When  the 
girls  prepared  to  strike  I  joined  with  them.  They  had  meetings,  went  to  a 
field,  I  think,  and  some  one  talked  to  them  ;  and  finally  a  girl  got  up  on  a 
stump  and  made  a  speech.  I  do  not  remember  exactly  what  she  said,  but  I 
remember  I  thought  it  was  the  most  dreadful  thing  in  the  world  to  hear  a 
woman  talking  in  public.  Well,  when  the  time  came  that  we  were  to  leave 
our  work  finally,  the  big  girls  would  not  start,  and  they  hesitated  and  said, 
"  Had  we  better  strike,  and  will  it  do  any  good  ?  "  or,  "I  guess  we  might  as 
well  go  back  to  work."     But  I  said,  "  I  do  not  care  who  strikes,  I  going  to 


Industries.  161 

strike,"  and  so,  leading  the  procession  of  all  those  large  girls,  so  much  older 
than  I,  we  marched  out  of  the  room. 

The  only  bad  result  of  all  this  was  that  my  mother,  who  was  a  very  poor 
woman,  with  four  children,  was  turned  out  of  her  house  by  the  agent  of  the 
corporation,  who  said  :  "  The  large  girls  among  your  boarders  you  could  not 
prevent  from  striking,  but  your  daughter,  being  so  small,  you  certainly  could 
control."  My  dear  mother  never  coerced  her  children,  but  permitted  us  to 
grow  up  in  freedom  of  spirit  and  develop  through  our  own  hard  experiences. 

In  1836  a  few  of  these  factory  girls  formed  themselves  into  a  club,  with  a 
constitution  and  list  of  officers.  One  of  the  articles  stated  that  they  formed 
themselves  into  this  organization  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  gifts  which 
God  had  given  them.  This  was  the  first  woman's  club  in  New  England,  if 
not  in  all  the  world,  and  was  the  advance  guard  of  Sorosis  and  the  hundreds 
of  other  woman's  clubs  which  have  sprung  up  all  over  the  country. 

Mrs.  Johns.  I  will  now  present  Mrs.  M.  Louise  Thomas,  President  of 
Sorosis. 

Mrs.  Thomas.  I  am  very  glad  to  be  permitted  to  tell  this  story  of  the 
Lowell  Offering,  the  first  magazine  ever  written  wholly  by  women.  Mrs. 
Robinson  has  already  told  you  of  its  establishment.  As  the  young  people 
say,  that  was  rather  before  my  time  ;  that  is,  it  was  before  my  marriage  to 
the  good  man  who  conceived  the  idea.  My  husband,  the  Rev.  Abel  C. 
Thomas,  was  settled  in  Lowell,  Mass.,  as  the  pastor  of  a  church  there;  and 
he  saw  so  much  talent  in  the  girls  employed  in  the  factories,  that  he  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  establishing  improvement  circles.  They  were  held  every 
week  in  the  vestry-room  of  his  church,  and  of  another  church  in  the  same  city, 
that  of  Rev.  T.  B.  Thayer.  Among  other  forms  of  entertainment,  it  was 
suggested  that  the  young  women  should  prepare  papers ;  those  that  were  not 
ready  to  speak  could  read.  Mr.  Thomas  very  soon  perceived  great  ability 
in  their  productions.  He  had  some  skill  as  a  practical  printer  in  his 
early  life,  and  it  entered  his  mind  that  he  would  publish  thes,e  papers  in  the 
form  of  a  magazine. 

When  Dickens  came  first  to  the  United  States  he  visited  Lowell,  and  he 
was  greatly  interested  in  the  ability — in  the  quality,  rather — of  the  minds 
of  the  operatives  in  the  mills,  as  exemplified  in  their  writings.  Those  of  you 
who  have  read  his  travels  in  the  New  World  will  find  that  he  makes  special 
mention  of  the  Lowell  Offering. 

When  Harriet  Martineau  came  to  make  her  first  visit  to  this  country  she 
was  also  deeply  interested,  and  on  her  return  to  her  own  land  she  made 
a  reprint  of  the  Lowell  Offering,  entitled  Mind  Among  the  Spindles. 
The  volume  was  upward  of  200  pages.  During  her  visit,  I  will  say,  there 
were  three  young  women  who  were  particularly  prominent  as  writers  among 
the  factory  operatives.  They  prepared  a  volume — a  bound  volume  of  the 
Lowell  Offering,  and  they  inscribed  upon  the  back  of  it,  "To  Harriet  Mar- 


162  International  Council  of  Women. 

tineau;  from  Harriet  Farley,  Harriet  Lees,  and  Harriet  Curtis,"  and  they 
were  known  by  the  name  of  the  "Three  Harriets." 

In  1843,  I  think  it  was,  Mr.  Thomas  withdrew  from  the  editorial  charge 
and  left  Lowell,  and  these  three  Harriets  succeeded  him  in  the  editorship  of 
the  magazine.  There  is  not,  perhaps,  very  much  in  this  movement,  but  it 
shows  to  you  that  that  prophecy  given  to  us  by  Mrs.  Barry  of  days  to  come 
when  labor  shall  stand  on  golden  legs  is  not  an  idea  without  proper  founda- 
tion. In  those  days  not  only  labor  stood  on  golden  legs,  but  the  product  of 
labor,  the  brain  power,  was  markedly  affluent.  These  things,  as  I  have  told 
you,  have  come  to  me  by  hearsay,  but  they  are  deeply  implanted  in  my 
mind,  because  I  know  the  girls  of  that  day  who  wrote  while  attending  two 
looms,  keeping  them  going  one  on  the  right  and  one  at  the  left,  and  at  the 
same  time  preparing  the  contents  which  went  into  the  next  morning's  print. 
I  think  Mrs.  Robinson  does  not  quite  do  justice  to  the  high  standard  of 
those  women.  They  were  women  not  only  of  strong,  vigorous  intellect,  but 
they  had  a  good  New  England  education,  and  many  of  them  have  married, 
and  are  not  only  distinguished  in  the  world  of  letters,  but  they  have  taken 
as  high  positions  in  the  land  as  many  other  women. 

Miss  Anthony.  Now,  I  am  going  to  tell  you  my  factory  experience  : 
My  father  was  a  manufacturer,  and  one  day  I  heard  him  say  to  my  mother 
that  one  of  the  girls  who  attended  the  spooler  was  sick,  and  he  didn't  know 
where  he  could  get  anybody  to  fill  her  place.  My  sister  and  myself  both 
sprang  forward  and  said,  "Father,  let  us  go;  we  know  how  to  tend  the 
spooler,  and  we  can  do  it."  Mother  said  :  "  No,  you  mustn't  go  ;  it  isn't 
a  safe  pla°e."  But  father  said  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  let  the  girls  go 
and  see  if  they  could  do  it.  "  Well,"  said  mother,  "if  it  must  be  so,  only 
one  shall  go;"  so,  in  order  to  decide  the  question  as  to  who  should 
go,  we  drew  cuts,  with  two  slips  of  paper,  and  the  one  who  drew  the 
longest  was  to  go  into  the  factory;  and,  to  the  day  of  my  sister's  death, 
she  insisted  that  she  drew  the  long  cut  and  worked  in  the  factory  two 
weeks,  and  I  insisted  that  I  drew  the  long  cut  and  worked  two  weeks. 
I  do  not  know  which  way  it  was,  but  the  bargain  was  that  the  fortunate 
drawer  of  the  long  slip  should  divide  her  wages  with  her  unfortunate  sister. 
The  wages  were  twelve  shillings  a  week,  and  out  of  those  twelve  shillings,  or 
|li. 50,  the  ordinary  girl  paid  her  board— $1.00  a  week— and  had  50  cents 
left  to  buy  her  clothing;  but  the  fortunate  one,  whichever  it  was,  worked 
her  two  weeks,  earned  her  $3.00,  and  shared  them.  My  sister,  true  to  her 
artistic  nature,  bought  a  beautiful  bead-bag.  And  what  did  I  do  with  my 
twelve  shillings?  [A  voice  in  the  audience:  "Gave  it  away."]  No,  I 
didn't.  I  bought  six  coffee  cups  and  saucers  for  my  mother — plain,  blue, 
large,  old-fashioned  coffee  cups,  and  they  were  the  nicest  dishes  at  that  time 
that  had  ever  been  in  my  mother's  house. 

Another  thing  I  remember.     One  day  I  heard  father  praising  Sally  Ann, 


Industries.  163 

a  great  tall  woman  from  the  Green  Mountains  of  Vermont.  She  was  a 
weaver,  and  he  said,  "  Sally  Ann  has  wonderful  skill ;  she  knows  even  more 
than  the  overseer."  The  fact  was  that  whenever  there  was  any  trouble  either 
with  the  machinery  or  the  yarn  on  the  beam  the  overseer  could  not  remedy, 
he  would  go  to  Sally  Ann  and  say,  "  I  will  tend  your  eight  looms  if  you 
will  look  after  Jane's."  Sally  Ann  looked  after  Jane's  looms  and  quickly 
saw  what  was  the  matter.  She  straightened  the  tangled  yarn  or  she  found 
the  defect  in  the  machinery;  and  I  remember,  though  I  was  a  mere  child, 
of  saying  to  my  father,  "  If  Sally  Ann  knows  more  about  the  weaving  and 
machinery  than  Elijah,  then  why  don't  you  make  her  the  overseer?" 

Miss  Loud.  Your  Chairman  has  allowed  me  two  minutes  more.  I  want 
to  tell  you  that  Mrs.  Barry,  whom  you  have  received  so  favorably,  was  present 
at  a  meeting  a  year  ago  where  I  spoke,  and  our  audience  at  that  time  was 
two-thirds  men.  I  talked  the  suffrage  for  women,  as  I  always  do,  as  I  think 
it  teaches  and  educates  them,  and  Mrs.  Barry  followed  me  from  the  platform 
and  told  me  she  was  not  a  convert.  So  to-day,  when  I  heard  her  talking  about 
equal  rights  and  privileges,  I  wondered  when  she  had  changed  her  mind,  and 
when  she  came  back  I  said  :  •'  Mrs.  Barry,  what  has  come  over  the  spirit  of 
your  dream  ?  "  She  said  :  "  What  could  I  do  ?  Equal  wages  are  not  every- 
thing. I  had  to  come  to  this,  but  you  must  remember  that  all  my  education 
and  all  my  prejudices  for  twenty  years  were  against  it,  but  when  I  began  to 
think  over  what  the  Knights  of  Labor  have  done  to  give  others  education,  I 
had  to  come  to  it." 

Mrs.  Johns.  A  communication  from  the  Federation  of  Labor  Unions 
has  b2en  sent  to  us. 

To  the  President  and  Members  of  the  International  Council  of  Women  : 

At  a  regular  session  of  the  Federation  of  Labor  Unions  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
held  on  Tuesday  evening,  the  27th  instant,  the  undersigned  committee  was  appointed 
to  prepare  an  address  to  your  Council  with  regard  to  the  attitude  of  labor  organiza- 
tions respecting  acts  of  intimidation  and  violence.  It  is  proper  to  state  here  that 
this  action  was  called  forth  by  some  remarks  made  by  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton, 
which  we  shall  hereinafter  quote. 

The  Federation  of  Labor  Unions  of  the  District  of  Columbia  sends  greetings  and 
wishes  you  God-speed  in  the  work  of  securing' exact  equality  for  women  in  every 
department  of  labor.  The  progress  made  for  the  advancement  of  your  cause  dur- 
ing the  past  forty  years  tells,  in  unmistakable  language,  the  efficacy  of  well-directed 
organization.  The  thinking  women  and  men  of  the  world  are  with  you.  The  abo- 
lition of  chattel  slavery  in  the  United  States  was  only  one  step  toward  freedom. 
The  second  and  third  yet  remain  to  be  taken.  When  the  masses  shall  have  been 
emancipated  from  industrial  bondage,  and  the  political  and  civil  disabilities  of 
woman  shall  have  been  removed,  then  will  we  be  prepared  to  erect  a  temple  to  Free- 
dom as  a  fit  dwelling  for  the  Goddess  of  Liberty. 

As  this  session  of  your  Council  is  appropriated  to  the  discussion  of  industries  by 
representatives  of  labor  organizations,  we  avail  ourselves  of  the  opportunity  thus 
afforded  to  respectfully  refer  to  the  following  remarks  attributed  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton  in  her  address  of  welcome,  in  the  hope  of  placing  labor  organizations 


164  International  Council  of  Women. 

in  their  true  light  before  your  Council,  and  of  giving  Mrs.  Stanton  an  opportunity 
of  explaining  her  notions  of  the  object  and  aims  of  these  organizations.  "If  the 
wrongs  of  our  sex  are  not  righted,"  said  Mrs.  Stanton,  speaking  extemporaneously 
for  the  moment,  "women  will  join  hands  with  the  labor  unions,  with  the  Socialists, 
and  with  the  Anarchists,  and  the  scenes  of  the  French  Revolution  will  be  repeated 
in  this  fair  land  of  ours."* 

We  are  of  the  opinion  that  these  words  were  uttered  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
and  without  previous  investigation  on  the  part  of  the  speaker  as  to  the  means 
employed  by  organized  labor  in  elevating  the  masses.  We  discountenance,  and  by 
no  means  tolerate,  acts  of  violence  to  person  or  property  on  the  part  of  our  members, 
and  we  have  neither  affiliation  with  nor  sympathy  for  associations  that  do.  Our 
methods  are  those  of  peaceable,  law-abiding  citizens,  who  believe  in  the  supremacy 
of  the  law  of  the  land,  and  who  are  desirous  of  righting  wrongs  by  peaceful  methods. 
The  general  tendency  of  labor  organizations  is  to  make  each  member  connected 
with  the  same  a  better  citizen  by  educating  him  into  a  broader  economy  and  a  higher 
notion  of  moral  excellence  and  civilization. 

E.  W.  Oyster, 
Jesse  Laws, 
Elizabeth  L.  Eaton, 
P.  L.  O'Brien, 
W.  C.  Haislup, 


Committee. 


Mrs.  Johns.     The  meeting  is  now  adjourned. 


♦Mrs.  Stanton's  remarks  at  this  point  were  prophetic.  She  said:  "The  next  generation  of 
women  will  not  argue  half  a  century  patiently,  as  we  have  done ;  but,  exasperated  with  a 
sense  of  injustice,  will  join  hands  with  labor  unions,  with  Nihilists,  Socialists,  Anarchists, 
Communists,  and  the  scenes  of  the  French  Revolution  may  be  repeated  in  this  fair  land  of 
ours."  If  the  cries  of  labor  are  still  ignored,  another  generation  of  men  may  be  driven  to 
violence  also.  Let  ua  remember  that  the  Nihilists,  the  Socialists,  the  Anarchists,  the  Com- 
munists are  each  fighting  under  the  despotisms  of  the  Old  World  for  the  liberties  they  can  not 
secure  through  laws  which  they  have  no  power  to  change.  E.  C.  S. 


WEDNESDAY,  MARCH  28,  1888. 


EVENING  SESSION. 


PROFESSIONS. 


The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Miss  Anthony,  who  in- 
troduced the  first  speaker  of  the  evening,  Prof.  Ren  a  A. 
Michaels,  of  Evanston,  Dean  of  the  Northwestern  University. 

WOMEN    AS    EDUCATORS. 

Miss  Michaels.  Woman's  work  as  an  educator  has  been  divided  into 
two  eras,  and  the  separating  line  is  almost  coincident  with  the  emancipation 
proclamation.  In  the  first  era,  including  all  of  those  eighteen  and  more 
centuries  of  the  world's  progress,  woman's  work  as  an  educator  was  mainly- 
confined  to  the  home  circle,  and,  at  best,  to  her  individual,  social,  and  in- 
tellectual sphere.  It  is  true  that  Pindar  acknowledged  that  many  of  his 
poetic  beauties  were  gems  from  the  crown  of  Corinne.  It  is  true,  indeed, 
that  Socrates  acknowledged  that  much  of  his  philosophy  was  drawn  from  his 
fair  teacher  Diatema ;  and  it  is  also  true  that  Hypatia  expounded  the  mys- 
teries of  the  Neo-Platonic  philosophy  to  the  young  Greeks ;  and  that  many 
learned  women  have  held  positions  and  chairs  in  the  universities  of  Southern 
Europe.  The  blue-stockings  of  Dr.  Johnson's  time  were  the  natural  pro- 
genitors of  the  strong-minded  women  of  to-day. 

It  is  only  a  little  more  than  half  a  century  ago  that  a  bill  was  introduced 
into  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York  praying  for  an  appropriation 
for  the  erection  of  certain  seminaries  and  high  schools,  and  it  was  urged  by 
the  advocates  of  the  measure  that  those  schools  might  furnish  young  ladies 
as  teachers  in  the  public  schools  of  that  State.  But  the  learned  statesmen 
of  that  time  scouted  the  idea,  as  they  expressed  it,  of  committing  the  train- 
ing of  the  sons  of  the  State  to  women,  and  one  very  learned  statesman  im- 
mortalized himself  by  saying  that  "  learning  was  a  very  dangerous  thing  for 
women;  it  would  draw  them  from  their  domestic  duties,  and,  therefore,  it 
would  be  very  pernicious  for  the  interests  of  the  State  and  society."  If  we 
look  over  the  curriculum  of  the  "  ladies'  courses,"  of  which  the  very  kind 
but  conservative  gentlemen  were  directors  in  that  day,  we  shall  be  amazed 
at  the  work  accomplished  by  the  women  as  educators  in  every  field,  who  had 
this  delicately  laid  out  "ladies'  courses"  for  their  discipline  and  inspiration. 

The  curriculum  and,  therefore,  the  education  of  women  has  passed  through 
two  phases,  or,  I  ought  to  say,  that  it  is  now  well  advanced  in  the  second 
phase.  Tne  first  phase  would  have  been  characterized  by  Mr.  Mill  as  the 
education  of  the  sentiments.     It  was  believed  by  those  kind,  but  very  con- 


166  International  Council  of  Women. 

servative  directors,  that  too  much  mathematics  would  be  fatal  to  the  health 
of  young  women,  too  much  science  would  unsettle  her  religious  faith,  and 
that  any  Greek  at  all  would  make  her  masculine,  although  the  Greeks  num- 
bered among  their  greatest  poets  a  woman  ;  and  it  was  believed  that  the 
study  of  logic  would  be  fatal  to  her  mind  and  body.  You  all  know  the 
results.  You  will  remember  that  in  the  first  period  that  I  have  noted  here 
the  sphere  of  woman  as  an  educator  was  confined  to  the  secondary  grades 
of  instruction.  It  could  not  be  otherwise,  for  the  work  that  was  laid  out  in 
those  "ladies'  courses"  that  I  have  mentioned  could  not  by  any  means  fit 
women  for  taking  places  in  the  higher  positions  of  learning.  At  that  time 
we  see  that  the  very  highest  position  the  woman  could  obtain  was  that  of 
preceptress.  The  preceptress  meant  a  little  teaching  of  everything  and  great 
deal  of  scolding  of  everybody.  In  fact,  the  preceptress  was  the  natural 
headsman  or  executioner  of  the  institution.  It  was  she  who  had  to  do  all  the 
scolding  of  the  boys  and  the  girls — for  the  social  code  was  held,  and  is  still 
held  in  some  places,  that  girls  must  not  only  be  whipped  for  their  own  sins, 
but  for  the  boys'  as  well.  And  the  portraits  of  the  old-time  preceptress, 
like  that  of  the  Yorkshire  schoolmaster,  will  never  be  effaced  from  our  educa- 
tional history.  Prim,  plain  to  a  fault,  geometrically  plain  in  face,  manner, 
and  dress,  she  was  supposed  to  be  the  inveterate  foe  of  everything  masculine; 
and  it  was  very  ingenuously  believed  that  she  would  have  gladly  banished  the 
masculine  gender  from  good  old  Mr.  Brown's  grammar.  Michigan  Uni- 
versity opened  its  doors  to  women.  Then  began  a  new  era  in  the  history  of 
woman  as  an  educator.  It  was  then  that  the  golden  key  was  given  to  her 
that  was  to  unlock  the  door  to  every  department  of  collegiate  instruction  ; 
to  every  profession  which  leads  even  to  the  ballot-box  itself.  How  little  they 
dreamed — those  very  kind  but  conservative  gentlemen — that  they  were  allow- 
ing a  Trojan  horse  to  be  brought  within  their  walls. 

Taking  a  bird's-eyeview  of  what  women  have  done,  let  us  look  for  a  mo- 
ment at  some  examples.  I  think  I  have  been  correctly  informed  that  in  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University  very  recently  ex-President  White,  of  Cornell, 
mentioned  before  a  class  of  specialists  as  the  best  work  in  a  certain  line  that 
they  were  considering  was  the  work  of  a  lady.  I  refer  to  the  "  Parliaments 
of  Paris,"  by  Prof.  Jane  M.  Bancroft,  formerly  Dean  of  the  Woman's  Col- 
lege of  the  Northwestern  University.  And  you  all  know  that  Prof.  Maria 
Mitchell  has  been  treading  the  pathways  of  the  stars  and  discovering  new 
worlds.  Then  here  is  my  friend,  the  distinguished  professor,  Louisa  Kead 
Stowell,  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  who  is  known  in  two  continents  as 
a  specialist  in  microscopy,  and  is  the  first  woman  educated  in  America  to  be 
elected  as  a  member  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society  of  London.  Pro- 
fessor Stowell  has  also  been  elected  and  honored  as  a  member  of  one  of  the 
most  conservative  organizations  in  this  country — the  Michigan  State  Phar- 
maceutical Association.    The  American  Educational  Association,  the  Associa- 


Professions.  167 

tion  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  and  the  Modern  Language  Association 
of  America  admit  women  to  membership  on  precisely  the  same  terms  as  men. 
How  astounded  would  those  New  York  statesmen  have  been,  for  they  would 
not  have  believed  that  good  prophet,  Mrs.  Willard,  if  she  had  told  them  that 
all  of  these  things  would  take  place,  and,  moreover,  that  an  army  of  women 
would  be  training  the  sons  of  this  vast  Republic  in  all  its  schools  just  fifty  years 
hence;  and,  further,  that  women  would  be  admitted  to  the  governing  boards 
of  instruction  as  well,  and,  that  we  have  School  Suffrage  for  women  in 
twelve  States  of  the  Union  and  this,  my  friends,  all  in  just  fifty  years. 

If  I  were  to  be  asked  this  evening  to  state  in  what  field  I  think  woman's 
influence  as  an  educator  would  be  especially  felt  in  the  next  fifty  years,  I 
should  unhesitatingly  reply,  the  class-room  and  the  press — the  class-room, 
the  great  under-graduate  college  for  our  young  men  and  women  to-day,  and 
the  press,  the  great  post-graduate  college  for  our  young  men  and  women  of 
the  future.  There  is  one  step  further  for  woman  in  preparation  as  an  edu- 
cator ;  that  can  not  be  reached  until  the  best  university  in  this  land,  the  only 
institution  that  is  founded  on  the  highest  a"hd  broadest  university  idea,  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  with  its  magnificent  corps  of  specialists,  shall  be 
opened  to  young  women. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  was  in  hopes  the  Dean  would  have  heard  of  a  remark 
that  was  made  at  the  meeting  of  the  State  Superintendents  of  the  Nation, 
held  the  other  day  in  the  Franklin  school-house  in  this  city,  by  President 
Elliott,  of  Harvard  University.  In  his  recommendations  for  the  elevation 
of  the  pr.blic  schools  of  this  country,  he  claimed  that  the  great  deterioration 
in  our  schools  was  attributable  to  the  fact  that  there  were  too  many  women 
teaching.  Worse  still,  not  a  single  superintendent  in  that  assemblage  of 
educators  rebuked  this  insult  to  the  army  of  noble  women  devoted  to  this 
profession.     I  wish  the  Dean  had  heard  that,  and  answered  the  President. 

I  have  now  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  Laura  C.  Holloway,  of 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  wh'o  was  for  many  years  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Daily 
Eagle  of  that  city. 

Mrs.  Holloway.  There  never  was  a  time  since  newspapers  were  made  that 
women  were  not  at  work  upon  them.  In  fact,  the  printing-press  was  discov- 
ered by  a  woman.  Don't  you  doubt  it,  because  it  is  the  truth.  A  Japanese 
empress,  with  an  unpronounceable  name,  who  lived  in  the  eighth  century, 
really  invented  the  printing-press,  and  because  there  wasn't  a  man  in  all  the 
kingdom  wise  enough  to  know  what  to  do  with  it,  it  was  suppressed. 

There  was  a  woman  as  long  ago  as  the  days  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  the 
wife  of  his  brother  James,  who,  forty-three  years  before  the  Revolution,  in 
1732,  published  the  first  paper  ever  issued  in  Rhode  Island.  She  was  early 
left  a  widow,  and  continued  her  husband's  business,  to  whom  she  had  been 
of  material  assistance  while  he  lived.  She  was  appointed  printer  to  the 
colony  and  supplied  blanks  to  all  the  public  offices,  printed  pamphlets,  etc., 


168  International  Council  of  Women. 

at  the  same  time  bestowing  her  special  care  upon  this  pioneer  paper.  The 
oldest  paper  in  the  Revolution,  as  you  know,  was  edited  by  the  daughter-in- 
law  of  a  man  who  was  disabled.  Her  name  was  Mrs.  Mary  K.  Goddard. 
Another  paper  edited  during  a  portion  of  the  Revolutionary  war  was  the  Bos- 
ton News-Letter,  by  Mrs.  Margaret  Draper,  and  when  the  city  was  besieged 
by  the  British,  hers  was  the  only  paper  which  continued  its  issue. 

In  New  York,  Mrs.  Mary  Holt  edited  and  published  the  New  York  Journal; 
she  was  appointed  State  printer  and  in  her  newspaper  did  good  service  in 
aiding  and  encouraging  the  patriots  in  1776.  And  I  think  the  women  did 
good  service  in  the  last  war,  and  might  in  some  others  ;  so  they  might  be 
allowed  to  vote  for  that  reason,  if  no  other.  In  Philadelphia,  Mrs.  Cor- 
nelia Bradford  made  a  handsome  competency  in  the  printing  and  publishing 
business  in  the  colonial  times,  about  1742.  Another  Philadelphia  printer  of 
great  ability  and  reputation  was  Mrs.  Zeuger,  who  succeeded  to  her  husband's 
business,  including  the  management  of  a  newspaper  previous  to  1748. 

Mrs.  Annie  K.  Green  was  the  colony  printer  in  1767,  and  also  published 
the  Maryland  Gazette.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Timothee  published  the  Charleston 
Gazette,  in  South  Carolina,  in  1773,  and  her  daughter-in-law  carried  on  the 
paper  after  the  war.  Clementine  Bird  published  the  Virginia  Gazette  during 
the  late  colonial  days  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1775. 

Mary  Crouch  assisted  her  husband  on  a  paper  published  in  Charleston, 
S.  C,  in  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act,  and  continued  the  issue  after  his 
decease.  In  1780  she  removed  to  Salem,  Mass.,  taking  with  her  her  press 
and  type,  where  she  continued  the  printing  business  with  much  success. 

Penelope  Russell  edited  a  paper  called  the  Censor,  at  Berlin,  Conn.,  in 
1 77 1.  She  was  to  a  great  extent  her  own  compositor,  setting  up  her  edito- 
rials straight  from  the  case,  without  the  use  of  pen  and  ink.  The  Hartford 
Courant  was  for  two  years,  1 777-' 79,  edited  by  Mrs.  Watson.  This  was  one 
of  the  best  papers  published  in  New  England  until  modern  times. 

These  are  but  a  few  specimens  of  the  early  women  printers,  many  of  whom 
have  missed  historical  record ;  but  of  the  seventy-eight  newspapers  published 
in  the  colonies  sixteen  were  edited  by  women,  and  of  these  sixteen,  fourteen 
were  ardent  patriots  and  eloquent  champions  of  liberty  and  equal  rights. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  the  modern  movement  in  journalism  commenced. 
Very  few  women,  and  those  under  exceptional  circumstances,  were  to  be 
found  in  offices  thirty  years  ago ;  the  most  prominent  journalist  at  that 
time  was  Margaret  Fuller,  who  was  so  long  associated  with  Horace  Greeley  in 
the  New  York  Tribune,  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  one  of  the  first  newspaper 
offices  in  the  United  States  to  employ  women  in  any  capacity  was  that  of  the 
Guardian,  published  at  Paterson,  N.  J.,  whose  editor  not  only  engaged  women 
compositors,  but  had  for  several  years  a  forewoman,  who  also  took  entire  charge 
of  the  paper,  making  all  the  selections,  judging  of  all  matter  inserted  whenever 
the^regular  editor  was  absent.     One  young  lady  who  was  graduated  from  the 


Professions.  169 

office  of  the  Paterson  Guardian  is  now  engaged  in  the  responsible  position 
of  a  make-up  in  New  York.* 

It  is  a  fallacious  and  popular  idea  that  women  have  usurped  any  of  the  oc- 
cupations of  men.  The  real  truth  is  that,  through  the  changes  of  civiliza- 
tion, men  have  crowded  women  out  of  their  places.  Everybody  knows  that 
women  have  been  bakers,  brewers  and  butter-makers,  weavers  and  spin- 
ners since  all  time,  and  that  it  is  because  they  have  been  pushed  out  of  all 
their  old  accustomed  places  that  they  are  now  prominent  as  teachers,  reform- 
ers, and  newspaper  writers,  trying,  by  example  and  precept,  to  help  society 
adjust  the  new  order  of  things  with  equity  and  right  feeling. 

Miss  Anthony.  The  next  speaker  was  the  first  woman  admitted  to  the 
National  Medical  Association  of  America,  1876,  at  Philadelphia — Dr.  Sarah 
Hackett  Stevenson,  of  Chicago. 

WOMAN    IN    MEDICINE. 

Dr.  Stevenson.  One  well-authenticated  fact  in  history  establishes  a 
precedent.  "  Do  you  wish  to  be  great  ?  Then  be  great  with  a  true  greatness, 
which  is  knowing  the  facts  of  nature  and  being  able  to  use  them.  Do  you 
wish  to  be  strong  ?  Then  be  strong  with  a  true  strength,  which  is  knowing 
the  facts  of  nature  and  being  able  to  use  them.  Do  you  wish  to  be  wise  ? 
Then  be  wise  with  a  true  wisdom,  which  is  knowing  the  facts  of  nature  and 
being  able  to  use  them.  Do  you  wish  to  be  free  ?  Then  be  free  with  a  true 
freedom,  which  is,  again,  knowing  the  facts  of  nature  and  being  able  to  use 
them."  Such  are  the  words  of  Charles  Kingsley,  and  such  is  my  message 
to  all  women — viz.,  the  great  value  of  the  habit  of  mind  which  the  study  of 
natural  science  can  develop.  Like  Charles  Kingsley,  I  have  watched  reform- 
ers in  their  endeavors  to  put  society  into  some  sort  of  a  freedom  mill  in 
order  to  grind  out  a  regeneration.  Like  him,  I  have  observed  that  the  kind 
of  flour  that  comes  out  depends  for  the  most  part  upon  the  kind  of  grain 
put  in,  rather  than  upon  the  make  of  the  machine. 

The  great  problem,  then,  is  to  get  grain,  and  again  the  words  of  this 
gifted  author  serve  my  purpose,  except  that  where  he  uses  the  word  men  I 
use  the  word  women.  "  What  do  I  mean  by  good  grain?  Good  women, 
honest  women,  accurate  women,  thoughtful  women,  patient  women,  self- 
restraining  women,  fair  women,  modest  women,  women  who  are  aware  of 
their  own  vast  ignorance  compared  with  the  vast  amount  there  is  to  be 
learned  in  such  a  universe  as  this,  women  who  are  accustomed  to  look  at 
both  sides  of  a  question,  and  instead  of  making  up  their  minds  in  haste  like 
bigots  and  lunatics,  wait  like  wise  women  for  more  facts  and  more  thought 
about  the  facts — in  one  word,  women  who  have  acquired  just  the  habit  of 
mind  which  the  study  of  natural  science  can  develop  and  must  have,  for 
without  it  there  is  no  use  studying  natural  science."  And  the  woman  who 
has  not  that  habit  of  mind,  if  she  meddle  with  science,  will  merely  become  a 

♦See  "History  of  Woman  Suffrage,"  Vol.  I.  chap,  ii.,  "Woman  in  Newspapers." 

12 


170  International  Council  of  Women. 

quack  and  a  charlatan,  only  fit  to  get  her  bread  as  a  spirit-rapper  or  inventor 
of  infallible  pills.  This  is  the  great  danger  that  moreNfchan  any  other  threat- 
ens the  advancement  of  women  in  medicine.  No  outside  forces  can  prevent 
their  attaining  the  highest  eminence,  although  outside  opposition  is  by  no 
means  overcome,  as  we  shall  see,  but  the  forces  which  are  to  be  dreaded  most 
are  those  which  women  themselves  may  generate. 

The  majority  of  men,  notwithstanding  all  their  advantage  of  conditions, 
are  lacking  in  this  scientific  habit  of  mind.  What,  then,  can  be  expected  of 
woman,  to  whom  science  has  been  an  abhorrence  to  be  shunned  or  an  enigma 
not  to  be  answered  ?  It  is  to  this  slovenly,  unscientific,  habit  of  thought 
which  is  hers  by  tradition  and  education,  that  woman  owes  her  easy  conquest 
by  quackery.  Besides  this  inherited  habit  of  mind,  woman's  economic 
dependence  favors  her  espousal  of  the  superficial.  The  easy  systems  of  med- 
icine commend  themselves  to  her,  because  of  the  more  speedy  financial 
returns.  Woman's  personal  poverty  stands  equally  in  the  way  of  the 
patient  accumulation  of  facts.  The  public's  love  for  infallible  pills  on  the 
one  hand  and  her  need  of  money  on  the  other  kills  the  scientific  spirit, 
and  never  since  the  day  that  Bacon  taught  us  the  meaning  of  science  have 
there  been  committed  so  many  sins  in  the  name  of  science.  With  the  word 
science  for  a  prefix  or  a  suffix,  any  moral  or  intellectual  monstrosity  is  floated 
out  on  the  popular  tide  as  a  system  of  medicine.  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to 
say  that  these  pseudo-scientists  are  not  all  women,  but  I  should  fail  in  my 
duty  toward  women,  did  I  not  use  this  opportunity  to  plead  with  them 
against  lending  themselves  to  this  degeneration  of  science.  There  is  but 
one  way  to  know  anything;  that  way  is  by  close,  patient,  all-absorbing  study 
with  your  ear  close  to  the  heart  of  nature  and  your  finger  upon  her  pulse. 

Medical  science,  which,  in  its  widest  sense,  includes  all  natural  science, 
can  not  be  learned  by  calling  public  meetings  and  talking  it  over.  Science 
lies  not  that  way.  So  I  would  urge  upon  women  who  are  contemplating  the 
study  of  medicine  to  choose  that  school  in  which  the  very  longest,  instead 
of  the  shortest,  course  of  study  is  prescribed,  for  the  very  longest  is  all  too 
short  compared  with  all  there  is  to  be  leanted.  Let  such  women  put  away  from 
them  the  temptation  of  money-getting  and  great  popularity.  The  women 
who  have  not  the  strength  of  purpose  to  do  this  had  far  better  turn  their  en- 
ergies into  commercial  channels;  the  altar  of  science  can  never  be  con- 
verted into  a  bargain  counter. 

Beside  this  economic  state  of  dependence  we  also  find  that  the  medical 
schools  for  women  are  poor.  There  is  scarcely  $100,000  worth  of  property 
belonging  to  any  one  of  them,  while  the  famous  medical  colleges  of  the 
world  count  their  wealth  by  the  million.  As  I  have  stood  within  the  portals 
of  those  immense  structures  of  the  Old  World  I  have  wondered  if  the  time 
would  ever  come  when  women  could  command  such  wealth  for  the  study  of 
science,  or,  better  still,  could  be  admitted  to  full  privileges  in  such  institutions. 


Professions.  171 

Some  of  those  doors  are  turning.  France  and  Switzerland  grant  full  degrees 
and  England  permits' examinations.  It  is  my  judgment  that  women  should 
unite  in  their  efforts  to  open  the  institutions  already  existing  rather  than  to 
call  into  being  any  more  sickly,  starving  colleges  such  as  we  see  attempting 
to  teach  medicine  all  over  the  country. 

It  kills  the  spirit  of  science  when  the  medical  school  becomes  a  commer- 
cial enterprise,  and  the  poverty  of  those  schools  compels  them  to  make 
money,  so  the  main  requirement  of  the  student  is  ability  to  pay  the  fee, 
and  the  professor  is  no  authority  in  anything  but  the  fee.  The  greatest 
hindrance  in  the  way  of  medical  science  to-day  in  America  is  the  ex- 
istence of  these  commercial  medical  colleges.  The  same  spirit  is  creep- 
ing into  the  schools  for  women.  At  first  there  were  so  few  women  who 
cared  to  study  medicine  there  was  no  temptation  for  the  medical  tradesman, 
but  just  now  he  is  getting  warmly  interested  in  the  medical  education  of 
woman — it  is  a  new  method  of  advertising — therefore  very  precious.  The 
way  for  women  to  save  themselves  from  this  cupidity  is  to  make  their  schools 
so  wealthy  they  can  live  without  student's  fees,  or  else  to  find  entrance  to 
the  already  existing  institutions.  I  know  of  no  better  way  in  which  women 
of  large  fortunes  can  serve  their  sex  than  by  making  the  impoverished  medi- 
cal colleges  for  women  independent  of  patronage  and  at  the  same  time  com- 
pel patronage  by  being  able  to  pay  for  the  very  best  scientific  teaching  in 
the  profession.  We  thus  see  how  closely  allied  are  our  two  greatest  foes, 
poverty  and  quackery;  but  the  physician,  man  or  woman,  who  has  once 
attained  what  Charles  Kingsley  calls  the  scientific  habit  of  mind,  could  not  be 
a  quack  if  he  would,  and  would  not  if  he  could. 

It  would  be  a  comparatively  easy  task  for  me  to  tell  you  how  many  women 
physicians  there  are  and  how  much  money  they  are  making.  Suffice  it  to 
say  there  are  about  one  thousand  registered  physicians.  Some  are  saving 
$100  a  month,  and  others  are  making  the  two  ends  meet  on  $50,000  a  year. 
But  a  true  friend  is  one  who  warns  of  danger  ;  so  I  have  called  attention  to 
what  I  consider  our  greatest  danger — sham  science,  the  craze  or  fad  of  the  day. 

And  now  one  word  concerning  what  medical  women  are  doing,  and  I  am 
done.  In  the  first  place,  let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  a  few 
young  girls,  inexperienced,  poor,  trammeled  by  the  narrow  policy  of  the 
societies  that  have  sent  them,  have  done  more,  as  doctors,  to  westernize  the 
East,  occidizing  the  Orient,  or,  if  you  would  rather  say  it,  Christianizing 
the  heathen,  than  have  all  the  mints  of  missionary  money  that  have  been 
sent  hitherto.  Why  ?  Because  they  administered  to  the  people  upon  the 
plane  of  their  necessities.  They  have  gone  to  work  in  the  order  of  nature. 
There  is  scarcely  a  land  under  heaven  where  woman'as  physician  is  not  found, 
and  for  a  hundred  years  to  come  the  supply  will  not  equal  the  demand. 

Next  to  this  great  question  of  the  missionary  doctor,  I'd  like  to  call  the 
attention  of  this  Council  to  the  institutions  in  which  women  are  detained, 


172  International  Council  of  Women. 

•either  for  crime,  insanity,  or  disease.  While  I  do  not  approve  of  institu- 
tions, and  wish  the  day  might  come  when  human  beings  shall  not  be  herded 
under  the  same  roof  for  any  cause,  while  I  believe  that  institutional  life  tends 
to  beat  out  of  the  individual  the  last  spark  of  real  dignity,  that  it  simply 
means  that  the  weak  and  vicious  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  strong  and  vicious, 
who  are  protected  by  the  name  of  charity  or  law — yet,  as  institutions  do 
exist,  the  public  ought  to  insist  upon  it  that  wherever  the  sick,  mentally  or 
bodily,  are  detained,  whether  the  institution  be  public  or  private,  physicians, 
not  politicians  or  professional  philanthropists,  should  have  full  charge. 

The  inhumanities  of  institutional  life,  even  in  this  age  of  the  world,  are 
heart-sickening.  Business  men  run  institutions  at  so  much  a  head — the 
smaller  per  capita  the  greater  the  success  of  the  institutions — while  the  fact 
that  the  people  inside  are  sick  is  the  last  fact  considered.  After  the  public 
has  demanded  that  physicians,  not  commercial  men,  shall  treat  the  sick,  let 
us  demand  that  wherever  sick  women  are  detained  by  law  or  charity  these 
women,  as  physicians,  shall  also  be  retained  by  both  law  and  charity.  Here 
is  practical  work  for  women  who  are  longing  for  a  career.  Go  back  to  your 
homes  and  visit  your  town,  county,  and  State  institutions;  especially  make 
a  call  at  your  county  poor-house,  and  look  at  the  pitiful  sights  in  the  cells  of 
the  maniacs  there  detained,  and,  after  you  have  asked  God  to  forgive  you  for 
the  neglect,  lose  no  time  in  finding  and  appointing  a  woman  physician  to  care 
for  your  unfortunate  sisters,  but  do  not  stop  here.  After  she  is  appointed  see 
to  it  that  she  is  paid  just  what  a  man  would  be  paid.  In  this  regard  the  West  is 
in  advance  of  the  East.  I  know  oneof  the  finest  women  in  the  world,  andagood 
doctor,  too,  for  I  helped  to  educate  her,  who  is  doing  a  man's  work  at  Worcester, 
and  yet  her  salary  is  the  lowest  in  the  institution,  and  she  is  kept  from  all  pro- 
motion. Dr.  Alice  Bennett  has  full  charge  of  the  female  department  of  the  East- 
ern State  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  at  Norristown,  Pa.  Many  of  our  asylums  are 
placing  the  women's  wards  entirely  under  the  care  of  women.  Eighteen  in- 
stitutions are  now  employing  women.  The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  public 
sentiment  will  demand  that  all  insane  women  shall  be  cared  for  by  women. 

Then  there  is  the  hospital  question.  This  has  been  the  Gibraltar  of  our 
opposition.  But  continual  dropping  does  wear  away  the  stone.  The  largest 
general  hospital  in  the  West  has  already  had  two  women  as  Internes.  The  third 
and  fourth  are  awaiting  vacancies.  Just  as  I  left  Chicago  a  petition  from  the 
doctors  had  been  sent  into  the  governing  board  protesting  against  the  admis- 
sion of  these  last  two  women,  who  have  gained  the  appointments  by  rigid  com- 
petition. One  of  the  doctors  was  heard  to  say,  "  Why,  next  October  there 
will  be  three  women  in  the  hospital,  and  there  are  only  nine  physicians 
altogether  !  "  I  thought  one-third  a  very  fair  proportion,  particularly  as  two- 
thirds  of  the  patients  are  women.  Men  consider  they  get  their  best  training 
in  large  hospitals.  They  sacrifice  time,  money,  and  no  end  of  influence  to 
obtain  these  positions.     The  experience  is  equally  good  for  women,  and,  as 


Professions.  173 

women  are  taxed  to  support  these  various  hospitals,  both  public  and  private,  we 
are  only  the  daughters  of  our  fathers  when  we  ask  for  personal  representation. 

Surgery,  too,  has  warned  us  not  to  take  the  sacred  knife  or  ligature  in  our 
nerveless  grasp ;  but  it  must  have  taken  a  great  deal  of  nerve  for  Jael  to 
drive  that  nail  through  Sisera's  head  and  not  into  her  own  fingers;  that 
same  nerve,  educated,  might  tie  an  artery  or  perform  an  abdominal  section. 
I  could  fill  a  book  with  just  the  names  of  opportunities  in  medicine  for  women. 
Why,  there  are  60,000  post-office  towns  in  the  United  States,  every  one  of 
which  could  support  a  woman  physician.  Wherever  the  United  States  mail 
goes  the  female  is  sure  to  follow.  Then  there  are  the  great  fields  of  ethics, 
pharmacy,  and  dentistry,  which  are  comparatively  untouched. 

But  the  first  good  of  woman  in  medicine  comes  to  woman  herself.  She 
has  been  made  to  believe  that  she  was  a  special  order  of  creation  and  not 
subjected  to  the  same  laws ;  that  shi  was  going  to  conquer  by  intuition  or 
inspiration,  or  some  other  extraordinary  method;  and  when  she  finds  that 
she  can  conquer  nature  only  by  obeying  her,  then,  for  the  first  time,  she 
learns  her  lesson.  Professor  Huxley  once  told  his  class  that  he  knew  of  no 
special  order  of  creation  unless  it  were  that  grouse  were  created  with  special 
reference  to  the  adjournment  of  Parliament  on  the  12th  of  August.  If,  for 
no  other  purpose,  the  study  of  medicine  has  been  invaluable  to  woman  in 
showing  her  where  she  belongs ;  that  she  is  neither  an  angel  nor  a  demon, 
but  a  fairly  well-made  half  of  mankind — no  better  and  no  worse  than  the 
other  half.  Woman  will  never  be  emancipated  from  any  bondage  until  she 
learns  her  own  nature;  not  from  books,  not  from  men,  but  from  her  own 
mother — nature.  I  implore  you,  then,  not  to  take  things  second-hand.  Go 
back  to  your  mother.  She  is  so  kind  when  you  are  in  earnest.  She  never 
gives  stones  for  bread  save  when  you  are  pretending  to  be  hungry. 

A  violin  solo  was  then  rendered  by  Miss  Maud  Powell,  a  lovely 
girl  of  seventeen,  tastefully  dressed  in  a  delicate  shade  of  pink 
silk.  She  played  with  wonderful  skill  and  expression  selec- 
tions from  Faust,  remarkable  alike  for  their  difficulty  and 
beauty,  and  completely  entranced  her  audience.  Standing 
there  unconscious  of  her  power  and  her  charms,  she  seemed 
the  personification  of  music  and  grace,  and  when  she  vanished 
it  was  like  waking  from  a  heavenly  dream. 

Miss  Anthony.  You  will  now  listen  to  Mrs.  Ada  M.  Bittenbender,  of 
Nebraska. 

WOMAN  IN  LAW. 

Mrs.  Bittenbender.  The  first  woman  attorney-at-law  in  America  was 
Margaret  Brent,  of  Maryland.  On  order  of  court,  made  January  3,  1648, 
she  was  admitted  to  the  bar  as  the  attorney  of  Lord  Baltimore,  the  Lord 
Proprietary  of  the  Province.     History  records  that  she  exercised  her  attor- 


174  International  Council  of  Women. 

neyship  with  great  energy  and  ability.  Before  her  admission,  however,  she 
had  not  been  a  regular  student  of  law.  The  first  American  woman  to  be 
admitted  to  the  legal  profession  on  proper  prosecution  of  law  studies  was 
Arabella  A.  Mansfield,  of  Mount  Pleasant,  Iowa.  This  was  in  June,  1869. 
Since  her  admission  nearly  one  hundred  other  American  women  have  been 
admitted,  two  of  whom  are  colored.  A  large  number  are  law  school  grad- 
uates. The  first  American  law  school  to  open  its  doors  to  women  was  that 
of  Washington  University  at  St.  Louis.  This  school  granted  the  application 
of  Phcebe  W.  Couzins  for  admission  in  December,  1868.  Now,  nearly  all 
law  schools  of  the  United  States  freely  admit  women.  Among  those  still 
refusing  are  the  law  departments  of  Yale,  Harvard,  Columbian,  and  George- 
town Universities,  and  Columbia  College. 

As  to  the  relative  standing  of  the  sexes  as  students  in  law  schools,  Hon. 
Henry  Wade  Rogers,  Dean  of  the  University  of  Michigan  Department  of 
Law,  in  a  letter  dated  March  nth,  says  :  "The  women  who  have  attended 
the  law  school  have  compared  favorably  in  the  matter  of  scholarship  with  the 
men.  Some  of  the  women  who  have  been  in  attendance  have  been  very 
bright  students,  indeed,  while  a  few  have  been  quite  poor.  The  question  is 
not,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  say.so,  whether  women  can  acquire  a  knowledge 
of  law.  They  are  just  as  capable  of  acquiring  that  knowledge  as  men  are. 
Their  failure  at  the  bar,  if  they  do  fail,  will  not  be  due  to  any  want  of 
ability  to  grasp  legal  principles,  but  it  will  be  due  to  their  unfitness  in  other 
respects  for  the  contentions  of  the  forum."  Hon.  Henry  Booth,  Dean  of 
the  Union  College  of  Law,  Chicago,  reports  the  standing  of  women  in 
scholarship  as  that  of  a  fair  average,  and  says :  "  We  discover  no  difference 
in  the  capacity  of  the  sexes  to  apprehend  and  apply  legal  principles.  We 
welcome  ladies  to  the  school  and  regard  their  presence  an  advantage  in  pro- 
moting decorum  and  good  order." 

Women  of  this  country,  on  application,  are  now  generally  admitted  to  the 
legal  profession  without  objection,  the  statutes  being  liberally  construed  for 
the  purpose  of  their  admission  where  there  has  been  no  special  enactment. 
When  admitted  they  are  en  titled  to  practice  before  all  courts,  State  and  national, 
the  same  as  men  are.  Of  their  admission  in  the  early  days  of  the  innovation, 
Ellen  A.  Martin,  of  the  bar  of  Illinois,  in  an  article  on  "Admission  of  Women 
to  the  Bar,"  published  in  the  Chicago  Law  Times,  1886,  says:  "Women  were 
admitted  on  their  first  application,  without  anything  in  the  law  specially  requir- 
ing it,  in  Iowa,  Missouri,  Michigan,  North  Carolina,  Utah,  District  of  Colum- 
bia, Maine,  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  Kansas,  Connecticut,  Nebraska,  Washing- 
ton Territory,  and  to  the  United  States  circuit  and  district  courts  in  Illi- 
nois, Iowa,  and  Texas.  In  Wisconsin  and  Ohio,  where,  after  some  women 
had  been  admitted,  others  were  refused  by  other  judges,  the  legislatures  at 
once  passed  laws  forbidding  their  exclusion.  In  Illinois,  California,  Minne- 
sota, Massachusetts,  Oregon,  New  York,  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 


Professions.  175 

and  Court  of  Claims,  the  courts  would  not  admit  women  until  laws  were 
passed  providing  for  it,  and  in  all  cases,  the  legislatures  promptly  passed 
them.  In  Congress  the  law  was  delayed  for  a  time,  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittee of  the  Senate  holding  that  no  special  legislation  was  necessary,  that 
the  United  States  courts  already  had  sufficient  authority  to  admit  women. 
In  Pennsylvania  the  admission  of  women  was  finally  secured  under  the  origi- 
nal law  passed  in  1834  for  the  admission  of  '  persons.'  The  first  time  the 
matter  could  be  acted  upon  by  the  supreme  court  of  Pennsylvania  it  acted 
favorably." 

Women,  anxious  for  admission,  were  the  first  to  advocate  these  enabling 
acts.  It  is  especially  interesting  to  read  of  the  able  efforts  made  by  Myra 
Bradwell  for  admission  in  Illinois,  Belva  A.  Lockwood  in  securing  an  act  of 
Congress  to  enable  women  to  be  admitted  to  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  and  of  the  twelve  years'  struggle  of  Carrie  Burnham  Kilgore  for 
admission  to  the  courts  of  Pennsylvania.  Under  this  innovation  twenty-one 
law  firms  have  been  established,  husband  and  wife  constituting  the  firm. 
Frequent  applications  are  made  by  young  women  to  become  students  in  the 
offices  of  women  who  are  in  the  practice.  Many  are  working  their  way  into 
the  profession — some  as  stenographers  and  type- writers  in  law  offices,  others 
as  court  reporters. 

Clara  S.  Foltz  and  Laura  de  Force  Gordon,  of  California,  won  legal  repute 
before  admission  to  the  bar  by  the  able  handling  of  their  mandamus  case  to 
compel  the  opening  of  the  Hastings  College  of  Law  to  women.  Clara  S. 
Foltz  and  Helen  M.  Cougar  delivered  able  legal  addresses  before  the  stu- 
dents of  the  Union  College  of  Law,  in  1886.  Catherine  G.  Waugh,  a 
graduate  of  the  Union  College  of  Law,  is  professor  of  commercial  law  in  the 
Rockford  (111.)  Commercial  College.  Several  have  received  court  appoint- 
ments as  examiners  in  chancery  and  examiners  of  applicants  for  admission 
to  the  bar,  and  have  acted  acceptably  in  these  capacities.  Emma  Haddock, 
of  Iowa  City,  in  June,  1878,  was  appointed  by  the  supreme  court  of  Iowa 
to  examine  students  of  the  State  University  for  graduation  and  admission  to 
the  bar.  She  was  reappointed  for  two  years  following.  Women  have  been 
elected  as  justices  of  the  peace,  and  are  capably  acting  in  that  capacity  in 
Kansas  and  Wyonvng  Territory. 

In  1884  Phoebe  W.  Couzins  was  appointed  Deputy  Marshal  for  the  Eastern 
District  of  Missouri.  In  1887,  at  tne  death  of  her  father  (the  Marshal),  she 
was  appointed  by  Associate  Justice  Miller,  ad  interim,  to  fill  his  place,  and  re- 
ceived many  encomiums  for  the  excellent  manner  in  which  she  discharged 
the  various  duties. 

Several  able  articles  have  been  written  for  law  journals  by  women  of  this 
country.  Of  books,  M.  B.  R.  Shay,  of  Streator,  111.,  is  author  of  "Stu- 
dents' Guide  to  Common  Law  Pleading"  (published  in  1881).  Of  this 
work,  Hon.  R.  M.  Benjamin,  Dean  of  Law  Faculty,  and  Hon.  A.  G.  Karr, 
Professor  of  Pleading,  of  Law  Department  of  the  Illinois  Wesleyan    Univer- 


176  International  Council  of  Women. 

sity,  say,  as  published  in  Callaghan  &  Company's  annual  catalogue  of  law 
books:  "  We  have  examined  with  considerable  care  '  Shay's  Questions  on 
Common  Law  Pleading,'  and  can  cheerfully  recommend  them  to  students 
as  admirably  adapted  to  guide  them  to  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  pleading  as  laid  down  by  those  masters  of  the  system,  Stephen, 
Gould,  and  Chitty."  Mrs.  Shay  graduated  from  the  Bloomington  Law 
School  in  1879.  She  won  the  prize  of  $100  for  the  best  examination  in  her 
class  and  was  the  valedictorian. 

Lelia  J.  Robinson,  of  Suffolk  (Mass.)  bar,  is  author  of  "  Law  Made  Easy — 
a  Book  for  the  People"  (published  in  1886).  Of  this  work,  Hon.  Charles 
T.  Russell,  professor  in  Boston  University  Law  School,  says  :  "  For  the  end 
proposed,  the  information  and  instruction  of  the  popular  mind  in  the  ele- 
ments of  law,  civil  and  criminal,  I  know  of  no  work  which  surpasses  it.  It 
is  comprehensive  and  judicious  in  scope,  accurate  in  statement,  terse,  vigor- 
ous, simple,  and  clear  in  style.  My  gratification  in  this  work  is  none  the 
less  that  its  author  is  the  first  lady  Bachelor  of  Laws  graduated  from  our  Bos- 
ton University  Law  School,  and  that  she  has  thus  early  and  fully  vindicated 
her  right  to  the  highest  honors  of  the  school  accorded  her  at  her  gradua- 
tion." Chief  Justice  Stone,  of  Alabama,  who  has  been  on  the  bench  there 
for  forty  years,  recently  gave  a  most  enthusiastic  opinion  of  this  book. 
Many  commendations  have  been  received  from  brother  lawyers  by  the 
authors  of  these  works. 

Myra  Bradwell  is  editor  of  the  Chicago  Legal  News,  one  of  the  most  noted 
law  journals  of  this  country,  which  she  founded  in  1868.  She  is  the  presi- 
dent of  one  of  the  largest  law-book  publishing  companies  in  the  United  States. 

Catharine  V.  Waite,  of  the  Illinois  bar,  edits  the  Chicago  Law  Times, 
which  she  established  in  1886,  and  publishes  quarterly  "  for  the  discussion, 
from  a  legal  standpoint,  of  the  great  questions  which  interest  the  commu- 
nity." This  journal  is  receiving  widespread  recognition  for  its  legal  worth. 
Bessie  Bradwell  Helmer,  also  of  the  Illinois  bar,  edited  the  last  twelve  vol- 
umes of  "  Bradwell's  Appellate  Court  Reports."  She  was  the  valedictorian 
of  her  law  class,  that  of  Union  College  of  Law  of  1882. 

The  first  association  of  women  in  law  is  called  "The  Equity  Club." 
This  was  organized  in  October,  1886,  by  students  and  graduates  of  the  law 
department  of  Michigan  University,  having  for  its  object  "  the  interchange 
of  encouragement  and  friendly  counsel  between  law  students  and  practi- 
tioners." It  is  international  in  scope.  Each  member  is  required  to  con- 
tribute a  yearly  letter  "giving  an  account  of  individual  experiences, 
thoughts  on  topics  of  general  interest,  and  helpful  suggestions  "  for  publica- 
tion and  distribution  among  members  of  the  association.  Last  year  sixteen 
letters  were  contributed.  The  Equity  Club  has  a  membership  of  thirty-two  ; 
Letitia  L.  Burlingame,  president ;  Martha  K.  Pearce,  corresponding  sec- 
retary. 


Professions.  Ill 

Another  association  of  women,  recently  organized,  is  the  "  Woman's  Inter- 
national Bar  Association,"  having  for  its  object :  first,  to  open  law  schools 
to  women  ;  second,  to  remove  all  disabilities  to  admission  of  women  to  the 
bar,  and  to  secure  their  eligibility  to  the  bench  ;  third,  to  disseminate  knowl- 
edge concerning  woman's  legal  status;  fourth,  to  secure  better  legal  condi- 
tions for  women.  President,  Catharine  V.  Waite,  Chicago,  111.  ;  General 
Secretary,  AdaM.  Bittenbender,  Lincoln,  Neb.  ;  General  Treasurer,  J.  Ellen 
Foster,  Clinton,  Iowa;  Secretaries — Great  Britain,  Eliza  Orme,  London; 
Italy,  Lidia  Poet,  Turin  ;  Russia,  Evreninova,  St.  Petersburg  ;  Swit- 
zerland, E.  Kempin,  Zurich  ;  Hawaii,  AlmedaE.  Hitchcock,  Hilo  ;  United 
States,  Lelia  J.  Robinson,  Boston. 

Women  are  welcomed  as  members  of  bar  associations  established  by  our 
brothers  in  the  profession.  But  few  have  availed  themselves  of  this  privi- 
lege. For  various  reasons  quite  a  number  of  women  admitted  have  not,  so 
far,  identified  themselves  with  law  practice.  Others  have  allowed  themselves 
to  be  drawn  into  temperance  and  other  reform  movements;  but  the  greater 
portion  at  once  settled  down  to  follow  their  chosen  pursuit  with  no  devia- 
tion, and  are  ripening  into  able,  experienced  lawyers,  and  winning  their  fair 
share  of  clientage.  Some  confine  themselves  mainly  to  an  office  practice, 
seldom  or  never  appearing  in  public;  others  prefer  court  practice.  Those 
who  enter  the  forum  are  cordially  countenanced  by  brother  lawyers,  and  ac- 
ceptably received  before  court  and  jury.  As  a  rule  they  are  treated  with 
the  utmost  courtesy  by  the  bench,  the  bar,  and  other  court  officers. 

Woman's  influence  in  the  court-room  as  counsel  is  promotive  of  good  in 
more  than  one  respect.  Invectives  against  opposing  counsel,  so  freely  made 
use  of  in  some  courts,  are  seldom  indulged  in  when  woman  stands  as  the 
opponent.  And  in  social  impurity  cases,  language,  in  her  presence,  becomes 
more  chaste,  and  the  moral  tone  thereby  elevated  perceptibly.  The  rule, 
11  No  smoking  in  the  court-room,"  is  better  observed. 

But  there  should  be  one  more  innovation  brought  into  general  vogue — 
that  of  the  mixed  jury  system.  When  we  shall  have  women  both  as  lawyers 
and  jurors  to  assist  in  the  trial  of  cases,  then  and  not  till  then  will  woman's 
influence  for  good  in  the  administration  of  justice  be  fully  felt.  In  Wyoming 
and  Washington  Territories  the  mixed  jury  system  has  been  tried  and  found 
perfectly  practicable  and  highly  satisfactory  to  all  except  evil-doers. 

English  women  began  the  study  of  law  with  a  view  of  practicing  before 
American  women.  The  British  Medical  Journal  is  quoted  as  saying,  in 
1867,  that  "  more  English  women  seek  for  admission  to  the  bar  than  for  en- 
trance into  medical  practice."  But  while  those  who  have  sought  have  been 
permitted  to  qualify  for  and  practice  as  attorneys-at-law  and  solicitors  in 
chancery,  they  have  not  been  permitted  to  become  barristers-at-law  and  ex- 
ercise the  rights  of  that  rank  in  the  prosecution  of  their  cases.  The  reason 
for  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  women  are  denied  admission  to  the  four  Inns  of 


178  International  Council  of  Women. 

Court,  which  are  the  only  places  where  barristers  are  trained  and  ranked. 
These  Inns  of  Court  are  voluntary  societies,  from  whose  power  to  reject  ap- 
plications for  membership  there  is  no  appeal. 

Of  legal  works  by  our  English  sisters,  only  two  have  come  to  my  notice, 
"  Trjal  by  Jury,  the  Birthright  of  the  People  of  England,"  by  Arabella 
Shedden  (published  in  1865),  and  "  A  Brief  Summary,  in  Plain  Language, 
of  the  Most  Important  Laws  of  England  Concerning  Women,"  by  Barbara 
L.  S.  Bodichon  (published  in  1869).  These  are  reputed  able  works. 
"Woman  and  the  Practice  of  the  Law,"  by  Lidia  Poet,  our  Italian  sister, 
"  discusses  the  question  of  woman's  right  to  practice  law  as  it  has  been  pre- 
sented recently  in  Italy."  Under  "  the  educational  law"  of  1876,  which 
"  opened  the  doors  ofthe  University  of  Italy  to  women,  and  thereby  enabled 
them  to  obtain  academic  degrees  in  law,"  Signora  Poet  "completed  the 
university  curriculum  in  law,  and  having  assiduously  attended  courts,  and 
otherwise  complied  with  legal  requirements,  was  admitted  to  the  Society  of 
the  Bar  of  Turin."  But  her  sex  precludes  her  from  practicing.  In  speak- 
ing of  her  case,  the  American  Law  Review  says  :  "In  view,  however,  of 
the  strong  support  which  the  claim  of  the  Signora  Poet  has  found  among  the 
best  and  ablest  lawyers  in  Italy,  we  think  it  likely  that  the  ability,  zeal,  and 
learning  displayed  by  the  author  of  this  pamphlet  ('  Woman  and  the  Prac- 
tice of  Law'),  if  turned  in  the  direction  of  amendatory  legislation,  would 
put  a  woman's  right  to  practice  law  in  Italy  beyond  cavil."  1  am  told  that 
Signora  Poet,  while  waiting  for  legal  recognition  of  her  right  to  practice,  is 
occupying  a  professorship  of  law  in  the  University  of  Bologna. 

A  few  years  since  an  attempt  was  made  to  admit  women  to  the  legal  pro- 
fession in  Russia.  A  Russian  lady,  writing  on  the  subject,  says  :  "  After  the 
reforms  in  our  judiciary  and  the  establishment  of  the  order  of  advocates, 
some  law  offices  employed  women.  Professors  were  invited  to  lecture  on  law 
before  the  women  courses  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  some  women  went  abroad 
to  study  the  science  in  foreign  universities.  But  the  government  forbade 
lawyers  to  accept  their  services  as  clerks,  and  the  movement  was  nipped  in 
the  bud.  *  *  *  The  law  society  of  St.  Petersburg  counts  among  its  mem- 
bers Miss  Evreninova,  who  took  her  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  at  Paris." 
But  because  of  her  sex  she  is  denied  the  right  to  practice. 

In  gleaning  facts  to  report  to  this  honorable  Council  what  has  been  accom- 
plished by  women  in  the  legal  profession,  I  addressed  the  ministers  of  for- 
eign legations  in  the  United  States,  asking  about  woman's  opportunities  for 
studying  and  following  this  profession  in  the  countries  represented  by  them. 
From  the  answers  which  gave  information  I  extract  the  following: 
"  Women  in  France  may  attend  the  lectures  given  at  the  law  schools,  but,  so 
far,  they  can  not  be  admitted^as  attorneys,  and,  therefore,  can  not  practice 
the  legal  profession."  "  Women  are  admitted  to  the  law  schools  of  Sweden 
and  Norway  ;  but,  so  far  as  known  to  me,  no   demand  for  admission  to 


Professions.  179 

the  legal  profession  has  as  yet  been  made  by  a  woman  in  the  said  countries." 
"In  the  Austrian- Hungarian  empire  women  are  not  admitted  to  the  law 
schools,  and  can,  therefore,  not  exercise  the  legal  profession."  "  In  Den- 
mark women  are  not  admitted  to  the  legal  profession,  and  so  far  as  I  know 
no  female  student  ever  frequented  our  only  law  school  at  the  University  of 
Copenhagen."  "There  is  neither  a  case  of  a  woman  entering  the  law 
schools  nor  following  the  legal  profession  in  Brazil."  "  Never  heard  of  any 
woman  having  graduated  as  a  lawyer  in  Mexico."  '■*  In  Germany  women 
are — at  least  at  some  universities — admitted  to  the  regular  courses  and  lec- 
tures ;  but  they  are,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  reaches,  never  admitted  to  the 
exercise  of  the  legal  profession."  "There  is  no  prohibition  in  the  Argen- 
tine Republic  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  women  to  the  law  schools  or 
to  the  practice  of  law,  but  up  to  the  present  time  none  have  been  admitted 
to  either."  "  I  know  only  of  one  Swiss  lady  who  studied  law,  Mrs.  E. 
Kempin,  who  was  a  student  of  the  University  of  Zurich  from  1884  to  1887, 
and  who  acquired  the  title  of  a  doctor  juris  utriusque  with  great  distinction  in 
1887.  But  the  laws  of  the  canton  of  Zurich  prevent  Mrs.  Kempin  from 
entering  the  bar  of  this  canton.  Her  address  is  Frau  Doctor  Kempin,  Flun- 
turn,  Zurich,  Switzerland."  "1  do  not  know  of  any  women  having  been 
admitted  to  the  legal  profession  in  the  Hawaiian  Kingdom,  though  I  do  not 
think  there  is  any  legal  obstacle  to  such  admission.  A  young  woman  from 
Hawaii,  the  daughter  of  one  of  our  circuit  judges,  is  studying  law  at  the 
University  of  Michigan  with  the  view  of  practicing  law  in  Hawaii." 

•  We  are  anticipating  that  among  the  results  of  our  "Woman's  Interna- 
tional Bar  Association  "  will  be  concerted  action  to  open  the  doors  of  law 
schools  still  closed  against  women  and  to  secure  the  right  of  admission  to  all 
ranks  of  the  profession  for  our  legal  sisterhood  in  other  lands.  We  believe 
women  are  not  only  as  capable  of  learning  and  applying  legal  principles  as 
men,  but  also  areas  capable  of  practicing  successfully  in  the  court-room,  and 
are  as  well  fitted  by  nature  for  doing  so  as  men.  This  we  know  is  a  very 
advanced  position  to  take,  but  are  not  women  as  well  qualified  for  judging 
of  minute  details  as  men?  Are  not  women  as  persistent  in  efforts?  Are 
they  not  endowed  with  as  much  power  of  endurance  ?  Great  physical 
strength  is  not  required.  Is  not  woman's  sense  of  justice  as  fully  developed  ? 
Is  not  her  intuitive  faculty  as  alert?  If  so,  are  not  these  the  essential  qual- 
ities required  to  fit  one  for  the  highest  and  truest  practice  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession ?  There  has  not  been  time  enough  yet  for  a  woman  to  develop  into 
an  Erskine  or  Burke,  an  O'Connell  or  Curran,  a  Webster  or  Choate.  But 
few  men  have  done  so  if  history  correctly  records.  Woman  has  made  a  fair 
beginning  and  is  determined  to  push  on  and  upward,  keeping  pace  with  her 
brother  along  the  way  until  with  him  she  shall  have  finally  reached  the 
highest  pinnacle  of  legal  fame. 


180  International  Council  of  Women. 

Miss  Anthony.  The  next  speaker  is  the  Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, who  will  tell  us  of 

WOMAN    IN    THE    MINISTRY. 

Mrs.  Bowles.  Woman  in  the  ministry  is  not  a  modern  innovation,  as 
many  think,  nor  is  it  an  intrusion  of  woman  upon  a  sphere  of  action  sacred 
to  the  masculine  half  of  humanity.  According  to  the  world's  most  ancient 
records,  the  first  student  of  moral  ethics  and  preacher  of  the  truth  thus 
learned  was  a  woman.  This  primitive  school  of  divinity  was  established  in 
a  garden  called  Eden,  which  a  man  was  commanded  to  "  dress  and  keep  " 
as  a  task  fitted  to  his  muscular  ability.  But  the  Perfect  Wisdom  said  "it  is 
not  good  that  the  man  should  be  alone,"  and  made  him  a  "helpmeet," 
adapted  to  lift  his  thoughts  from  the  seen  and  known  to  the  unseen  and  un- 
known. 

Following  the  significant  fable,  this  woman  "help-meet"  "saw"  that  the 
"  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  would  make  one  wise."  Eagerly  she  plucked 
the  golden  apple  of  this  royal  knowledge,  ate  of  it,  and  with  true,  conjugal 
love  called  her  husband  and  gave  him  a  share.  But,  alas  !  his  capacity  for 
swallowing  a  saving  truth  was  too  limited  even  as  now,  and  the  apple  would 
not  down,  but  held  ever  since  in  his  throat,  explains  much  of  his  subsequent 
behavior.  Ever-blessed  mother  Eve,  however,  digested  and  assimilated  her 
apple,  and  thereby  was  made  to  see  more  clearly  the  moral  distinctions  by 
which  the  race  rises  to  higher  levels.  Continuing  the  reading  of  the  early 
history  of  the  race,  we,  note  that  in  spite  of  hedging  law  and  custom  woman 
continued  to  use  her  prerogative  of  leading  upward  in  song,  prophecy,  and 
teaching  or  preaching,  as  we  now  call  it. 

Just  how  Huldah  opened  for  herself  the  school  of  the  prophets  and  made  it 
coeducational  we  can  not  tell,  but  we  know  she  ranked  all  spiritual  direc- 
tors in  a  certain  national  crisis.  And  the  sermon  of  King  Lemuel's  mother, 
in  the  last  chapter  of  Proverbs,  is  unsurpassed  as  an  exhortation  to  high 
manhood  and  womanhood.  Then  came  woman's  emancipator,  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth. Women  became  his  eager  pupils,  his  ardent  disciples  and  preachers, 
side  by  side  with  the  men  he  had  called  to  the  work.  Paul  mentions  many 
of  them  by  name  as  his  beloved  co-laborers  in  the  Lord — Priscilla,  Phebe, 
Persis,  Tryphena,  and  Tryphosa.  The  house  of  Phillip  gave  four  daughters 
to  the  Christian  ministry,  we  are  also  told.  Not  only  did  Empress  Helena, 
by  the  conversion  of  her  son,  make  Christianity  the  religion  of  Rome,  but 
other  royal  mothers,  wives  and  sisters  brought  England,  Spain,  France,  Rus- 
sia, Hungary,  and  Poland  under  Christian  rule.  Through  the  Middle  Ages 
princesses  of  the  blood  sought  the  cloister,  that  by  learning  they  might  serve 
the  religion  they  so  prized.  Women  read  Hebrew,  wrote  Greek,  published 
and  defended  theses,  and  harangued  popes  in  Latin.  Eloquent  young  girls 
preached  crusades  to  Christian  princes.  One  of  the  three  best  ancient  copies 
of  the  Scriptures  is  the  work  of  a  pious  Greek  woman  of  the  fifth  century. 


Professions.  181 

Though  Apasia  could  surpass  the  orators  she  made,  including  Pericles;  though 
Diotima  could  teach  Socrates  the  divine  philosophy,  and  Cornelia  be  counted 
the  first  philosopher  in  Rome,  the  level  of  womanhood  was  little  affected 
thereby. 

We  read  that  woman  was  the  last  work  of  creative  skill  which  pro- 
ceeded in  orderly  steps  from  the  lowest  up  to  the  highest  and  most  per- 
fect form.  Yet  even  now  are  to  be  found  men  who  imply  in  pulpit  and 
platform  utterances  the  absurdity  that  God  in  making  woman  reversed  the 
whole  order  of  creation  that  he  might  make  a  good  cook  and  nurse  for  man. 
By  virtue  of  her  creation,  her  natural  endowments,  her  historic  record, 
woman  might  claim  the  exclusive  right  to  the  pulpit  now  that  she  possesses 
equal  educational  advantages,  but  she  is  more  modest  than  this.  She  asks 
only  an  equal  encouragement  and  opportunity  to  enter  its  long-closed  doors 
and  speak  the  message  in  her  heart. 

Shall  ecclesiastical  courts  forbid  still,  and  upon  what  ground  ?  I  do  not 
claim  to  be  very  logical,  but  when  statisticians  give  us  such  facts  as  these 
I  will  mention,  and  print  them  for  the  eyes  of  all  women,  I  am  simply 
dazzled  by  their  brilliant  conclusion  that  men,  and  men  only,  are  to  the  pul- 
pit born.  Hear  this:  95  per  cent,  of  the  unchaste  are  men ;  95  percent, 
of  the  drunkards  are  men  j  95  percent,  of  criminals  are  men  ;  75  per  cent,  of 
the  paupers  are  men;  ergo,  all  preachers  of  purity,  sobriety,  honesty,  indus- 
try, and  high  morality  should  be  men.     "  Logic  is  logic,  that's  all  I  say." 

The  census  of  1880  gives  but  165  ordained  women  in  a  population  of 
60,000,000.  The  only  evangelical  denominations  which  have  ordained 
women  to  their  ministry  are  the  Protestant  Methodist  and  the  Christian  (Bap- 
tist). The  first  of  these  has  ordained  but  one,  Annie  H.  Shaw.  Twenty-five 
years  ago  the  Universalist  denomination  ordained  Olympia  Brown,  after  her 
graduating  from  its  theological  schools.  Thirty-five  years  ago  Antoinette 
L.  Brown  was  ordained  as  an  independent  preacher,  but  not  by  authority  of 
the  Unitarian  denomination,  which,  later,  has  ordained  a  small  number. 
The  present  Year  Book  of  the  Universalist  Church  gives  thirty-three 
women,  nearly  all  of  whom,  as  well  as  those  in  the  Unitarian  Church,  are 
settled  and  successful  pastors. 

The  immorality  of  our  great  centers  of  population  is  a  growing  menace  to 
the  peace  of  society,  and  how  to  deal  with  it,  an  ever-increasing  problem. 
I  look  to  a  consecrated  ministry  to  solve  it.  Not  by  scores,  but  by 
hundreds,  should  women,  who  now  constitute  three-quarters  of  our  churches, 
knock  at  the  doors  of  theological  seminaries  and  demand  entrance  that  they 
may  prepare  for  the  ministry. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  Mrs. 
Martha  R.  Field,  of  New  Orleans,  who  is  better  known  to  the  readers  of  the 
daily  Picayune  of  that  city,  as  "  Catharine  Cole." 

Mrs.  Field.     It  is  my  honor  to  represent  at  this  Council  an  association 


182  International  Council  of  Women. 

which  was  founded  on  sentiment.  The  Woman's  International  Press  Asso- 
ciation should  have  members  on  every  country  weekly  and  great  daily  news- 
paper in  all  civilized  lands,  with  opportunities  for  influencing  millions  of 
readers  in  all  progressive  and  philanthropic  works.  The  ancient  sentiment 
of  patriotism  is  yielding  to  the  modern  sentiment  of  philanthropy.  The  one 
means  love  of  fatherland — the  other  of  mankind.  In  ancient  days,  when  a 
man  was  wrecked  on  a  foreign  coast,  he  was  either  murdered,  enslaved,  or 
held  for  ransom.  Nowadays,  in  this  country,  he  is  welcomed  to  a  homestead 
and  all  the  rights  of  an  American  citizen,  with  the  Army,  the  Navy,  and  the 
great  heart  of  the  American  people  to  sustain  him.  That  is  a  distinct  mark 
of  progress  on  the  dial  of  time. 

The  best  that  modern  science  has  done  is  to  promote  the  democratic  ten- 
dency everywhere.  Having  determined  that  one  human  being  is  the  brother 
of  all  others  in  the  eyes  of  a  common  Father,  we  are  beginning  here  in 
America,  to  recognize  the  other  fact,  that  a  distinction  of  sex  is  not  a  neces- 
sary distinction  of  capacity  or  ability  in  the  active  work  of  the  world.  We 
of  the  New  World  are  conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  most  serious  problems 
of  the  Old  World  have  been  relegated  to  us  for  solution.  The  energetic, 
self-dependent  women  of  this  country  are  finding  employment  in  every 
branch  of  industry  and  commerce.  It  merely  happens  that  in  journalism 
we  have  had  the  best  opportunity  to  write  our  names  in  enduring  letters 
and  to  command  respect  instead  of  soliciting  toleration. 

The  advancement  of  women  in  the  world  everywhere  has  been  through 
all  ages  coeval  with  the  most  glorious  triumphs  of  civilization.  Every  advance 
women  make  here  is  met  with  a  ready  response  in  Europe,  or  vice  versa. 
No  territorial  lines  divide  the  common  heart  of  womanhood  or  bar  that  touch 
of  nature  that  makes  the  whole  world  kin.  We  in  America  have  led,  and  are 
willing  to  follow;  and  we  gladly  invite  the  counsel  of  foreign  journalists  in 
regard  to  the  practical  duties  of  our  profession.  Woman  in  journalism  has 
come  to  stay.  What  are  her  duties,  then  ?  What  has  mankind  the  right  to 
expect  from  her  toward  the  betterment  of  current  literature  ?  First  of  all, 
good  taste — the  second  conscience  of  the  sex — grace,  style,  every  artistic 
attraction  that  is  not  meretricious ;  second,  in  logical  order,  but  first  in  im- 
portance, purity.  We  have  not  gone  into  journalism  to  take  the  place  of 
the  politician,  the  statesman,  the  savant,  but  to  spread  the  influence  of 
Christian  firesides — the  aims  of  a  broad  philanthropy,  over  the  modern  world. 

Hundreds  of  women  belong  to  this  great  Press  Association.  Some  of  them 
are  here  to-night,  and  many  are  far  from  here  at  work  by  busy  desks  in  the 
sweet  security  of  their  homes  or  in  the  equal  security  of  their  newspaper 
offices.  They  may  or  they  may  not  wear  on  their  breasts  the  white,  the  red, 
or  the  yellow  ribbon  of  the  new  legion  of  honor,  but  wherever  they  are  their 
pens  and  services  should  be  dedicated  to  just  the  fine  and  simple  sentiments 
of  honesty  and  purity. 


Professions.  183 

The  following  paper  is  from  Marion  A.  McBride,  of  Boston, 
Secretary  of  the  Woman's  International  Press  Association  : 

WOMEN    IN    JOURNALISM. 

The  prominent  position  taken  by  women  at  present  is  due  to  the  pressure 
of  public  opinion,  which  has  forced  many  into  the  front  rank  who  have  for 
years  worked  quietly  and  devotedly  in  the  background.  It  is  not  due  to 
any  paramount  demand ;  but,  like  a  panorama,  where  every  figure  has  its 
place,  woman's  turn  has  come.  Underlying  the  social  structure,  touching 
life  in  all  its  relations,  woman  has  ever  held  a  place  which  was  peculiarly  her 
own  ;  but  broader  education,  more  of  physical  culture,  a  general  coming 
out  into  the  sunshine  of  the  world,  brings  woman  into  prominence  as  never 
before.     Women  in  journalism  have  made  a  good  record.     *     *     * 

In  1772  Clementine  Reid  printed  and  edited  the  Virginia  Gazette,  a  paper 
devoted  to  the  Colonial  cause,  and  two  years  later  Mrs.  H.  Boyle  started  a 
Royalist  paper  bearing  the  same  name.  Mrs.  Reid's  paper  was  the  first  in 
the  United  States  to  publish  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  In  the  face 
of  these  facts  journalism  was  not  considered  a  profession  open  to  women. 

Since  1850  women  have  been  editing  departments  in  weekly  papers  with 
success.  For  the  past  twenty  years  they  have  been  placed  upon  the  repor- 
torial  and  correspondent  staff  of  daily  papers,  until  to-day  it  is  the  excep- 
tion to  find  any  paper — daily,  weekly,  or  monthly — without  a  woman  doing 
either  editorial  or  reportorial  work.  There  seems  to  be  a  pervading  feeling 
that  certain  things  can  be  done  better  by  a  woman  than  by  a  man,  and  the 
press,  highly  sensitive  to  public  sentiment,  meets  this  demand  for  news  and 
feminine  views  of  affairs  by  securing  the  work  direct  from  those  interested. 

When  women  take  up  any  line  of  business  they  are  more  isolated  in  their 
work  than  men  in  the  same  position.  To  meet  the  need  of  this  isolation, 
to  render  more  complete  the  work  of  women  by  putting  them  in  close 
communication,  one  with  another,  the  Woman's  National  Press  Asso- 
ciation was  formed  in  New  Orleans  May  13,  1885.  The  object  of  the  asso- 
ciation, as  defined  in  the  platform,  is  "  to  provide  a  medium  of  communica- 
tion between  the  journalists  of  the  country,  securing  all  the  benefits  that 
result  from  organized  effort.  Such  information  as  is  continually  needed  by 
writers  will  always  be  rendered  available,  and  new  avenues  will  be  opened  to 
individuals  for  journalistic  work.  Innumerable  benefits  arise  from  mutual 
help  and  encouragement.  One  aim  of  the  association  is  to  forward  the  in- 
terests of  the  working  women  of  this  country  in  every  possible  way." 

This  association  has  grown  rapidly  from  the  date  of  organization,  and 
May  13, 1887,  its  character  was  changed  from  National  to  International,  with 
the  following  officers  :  President,  Mrs.  Eliza  J.  Nicholson,  New  Orleans,  La.  ; 
Vice-Presidents,  Mrs.  Augusta  Chadz,  Melbourne,  Australia;  Mrs.  E.  J. 
Bocock,  Longreach,  Brisbone,  Queensland  ;  Miss  Mary  M.  Mullen,  London  ; 
Secretary,  Marion  A.   McBride,  Boston,  Mass.  ;  Honorary  Members,  Mrs. 


184  International  Council  of  Women. 

Mary  A.  Livermore,  Clara  Barton,  Mrs.  Frank  Leslie.  This  was  the  first  com- 
prehensive grouping  of  women  national  in  character,  because  its  mem- 
bers were  drawn  from  many  States ;  its  interests  thrown  like  a  net-work 
at  once  over  all  women's  work,  it  became  the  magic  chain  to  draw  forth 
reports  of  woman's  achievements.  Women,  scarce  strong  enough  to  stand 
alone,  have  been  helped  into  successful  work. 

The  International  Association  has  a  membership  of  nearly  400,  scattered 
over  the  United  States,  Mexico,  and  parts  of  Europe.  To  the  loving  work 
of  Mary  Clement  Leavitt,  of  Boston,  now  on  a  tour  around  the  world  for  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  js  due  the  complete  international 
character  of  an  organization  which  is  doing  good  for  women,  society,  the 
home,  school,  and  State,  with  hundreds  of  workers  scattered  over  the  world 
in  close  telegraphic  communication,  bound  together  by  common  interests. 
The  Woman's  Press  Associations,  strong,  practical,  and  broad,  as  they  stand 
to-day,  are  the  helpers  of  every  good  cause,  the  friends  of  every  one  in  need, 
the  open  door  through  which  all  womanly  work  can  pass  into  public  sym- 
pathy, the  avenue  through  which  educational  work  can  be  enlarged  until  the 
grand  plans  of  the  grandest  workers  are  accomplished  facts.  To  managing 
editors  of  leading  papers  of  the  United- States  and  to  the  officers  of  the  Asso- 
ciated Press  we  are  deeply  indebted  for  many  acts  of  kindness,  for  help  when- 
ever asked,  in  connection  with  woman's  work  in  journalism. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  am  happy  now  to  introduce  to  you  a  representative  of 
the  National  Press  Association,  Mrs.  Aurelia  Hadley  Mohl. 

AD    IDEA   AND    ITS   RESULTS. 

Mrs.  Mohl.  "  Occasionally,"  says  Carlyle,  "  God  lets  loose  a  thinker  on 
the  world  ;  then  there  is  a  commotion."  This  is  equally  true  of  an  idea. 
Brain  and  hand  labor  are  coexistent  with  humanity.  Men  and  women  have 
fulfilled,  individually,  the  doom  to  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their 
brow  from  its  utterance  until  now.  But  organized  labor  is  the  idea  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  many  skeins  of  the  labor  rope  are  being  twisted 
into  a  cable,  which  already  nearly  girdles  the  earth,  and  which  is  destined  to 
crush  its  life  out  should  hate  twist  the  threads,  or  to  bind  humanity  in  per- 
petual unity  if  love  shall  twine  the  cords. 

Organization,  like  other  ideas,  grew  up  from  what  we  are  pleased  to  call 
the  lower  stratum  of  society.  Each  century  shows  the  growth  and  fruitage 
of  some  idea.  Now  we  see  the  stirring  of  the  grand  thought  of  brotherhood 
contained  in  the  command,  "Be  ye  one,  even  as  I  and  My  Father  are  one." 

It  was  not  until  this  century  had  long  passed  its  majority  that  the  organi- 
zation idea  grew  tall  enough  to  reach  the  sacred  seclusion  bf  woman's  sphere. 
It  may  seem  strange  that  the  idea  was  so  long  reaching  the  women  of  the 
press,  but  a  close  inquiry  reveals  the  reasons.  The  tendency  of  their  work 
is  unsociable,  its  demands,  especially  upon  newspaper  writers,  constant, 
imperative,  and  exclusory.     Many  of  these  women  have  home  cares  which 


Professions.  185 

claim  and  generally  receive  their  best  thought  and  attention,  and  the  amount 
of  brain  and  hand  work  they  accomplish  day  after  day  is  simply  marvelous. 
They  have  no  time  to  hear  or  see  any  new  thing  outside  the  daily  round. 

If  one  can  afford  a  week's  holiday,  she  finds  her  tired  brain  refusing  to 
receive  the  added  straw  of  a  single  thought,  and  demanding  rest  by  lapsing 
into  utter  vacuity.  The  wonder  is  that  the  idea  ever  reached  them  at  all. 
But  it  did,  and  took  shape — as  was  most  fitting — in  the  capital  and  brain- 
center  of  the  country.  Realizing  the  fact — since  then  so  well  stated  by  Dr. 
Leech — that  "  ten  ladies  working  methodically  in  a  society  can  accomplish 
as  much  as  fifty  without  organization,"  six  correspondents  met  in  that 
kindly  and  pleasant  nursery  for  woman's  ideas,  the  Red  Parlor  of  the  Riggs 
House,  on  July  10,  1882,  and  organized  the  association  I  have  the  honor  to 
represent  this  evening.  It  was  the  first  Woman's  Press  Association  the  world 
had  ever  known. 

What  an  army  of  pen  women  there  is  in  the  world !  Fancy  these  writers 
formed  into  companies,  drilled  to  keep  step,  to  march  shoulder  to  shoulder 
and  to  use  their  mighty  little  weapons  in  the  sacred  cause  of  cleanliness  and 
purity  and  truth  !  One  could  almost  see  the  soiled  hosts  of  ribaldry  and 
scandal  and  venality  fleeing  before  the  white  pens  of  this  irresistible  army. 
Yes,  it  was  a  grand  thought,  and  its  time  had  fully  come.  The  infant  idea 
embodied  in  the  Woman's  National  Press  Association,  though  unprotected 
by  any  prohibition  on  similar  industries,  lived  and  throve  ;  passed  safely 
through  the  measles  and  whooping-.cough  stages,  and  cut  its  wisdom-teeth 
with  much  pain  and  worry.  It  has  now  forty  names  on  its  roll,  classified 
into  sixteen  correspondents,  twelve  contributors,  seven  authors,  three  edi- 
tors, and  four  doing  editorial  writing.  It  has  members  from  every  section 
of  this  country  and  from  foreign  lands.  But  if  this  association  had  died  in 
its  first  year,  its  work  would  not  have  ended.  "The  things  which  are  seen 
are  temporal,  but  the  unseen  things  are  eternal."  The  idea  it  embodies  is 
not  only  immortal,  but  active  and  progressive,  and  its  results  shall  multiply 
and  strengthen  until  our  literary  women  shall  be  of  one  mind  and  one  spirit 
through  constant  communion  one  with  the  other. 

The  association  formed  in  New  Orleans  in  1885,  and  which  is  so  ably  rep- 
resented by  the  friend  who  has  preceded  me,  was  the  first  apparent  result. 
This  was  followed  the  same  year  by  the  New  England  and  Ohio  Associations 
and  the  first  Illinois  Association,  but  this  died  and  the  present  one  was 
formed  the  following  year.  Another,  organized  in  Indiana,  also  perished  and 
has  not  yet  been  replaced.  The  Woman's  Press  Association  of  the  South 
is  now,  I  think,  in  its  third  year,  and  numbers  about  one  hundred.  Statis- 
tics furnished  me  by  the  secretaries  of  the  New  England  and  Illinois  Associ- 
ations are  as  follows :  the  New  England  Association  numbers  fifty-eight,  of 
whom  twenty-five  are  editors,  two  editorial  writers,  twelve  correspondents, 
13 


186  International  Council  of  Women. 

nineteen  contributors,  and  two  business  managers.  The  Illinois  Association 
held  its  first  meeting  for  permanent  organization  January  7,  1886.  This  is  a 
strong-limbed  young  giantess,  vigorous,  energetic  and  practical.  Her  report 
is  :  members,  101,  of  whom  thirty-one  are  editors  or  doing  editorial  work; 
forty-four  correspondents  ;  twelve  authors  and  ten  publishers.     *     *     * 

All  Southern  Press  Associations  admit  both  sexes  on  terms  of  perfect 
equality,  which  retards  the  organization  of  women's  associations  in  that 
favored  land.  Literature  is  one  avocation  which  has  never  closed  its  doors 
to  women.  The  "republic  of  letters"  places  many  restrictions  about  the 
ballot,  but  sex  is  not  one  of  them. 

Ours  is  a  noble  calling,  my  sisters  of  the  press,  and  "noblesse  oblige" 
should  be  our  motto.  The  title  of  literary  woman  is  never  more  to  be  the 
synonym  for  slovenly  attire,  or  loose  morals,  or  neglected  homes.  Divinely 
ordained  teachers  and  trainers  of  humanity,  women  must  write  only  true  and 
pure.  The  long  pathway  of  history  and  tradition  is  brightened  by  woman's 
genius  and  melodious  with  woman's  voice  in  song  or  story.  Miriam  and 
Deborah  were  poets,  and  the  woman  of  Tokoa  a  short  story-writer.  Women 
sat  with  the  wise  men  of  Egypt  in  their  great  schools  of  religion  and  science, 
and  occupied  professors'  chairs  in  the  most  famous  academies  of  Greece  and 
Rome.  But  it  was  left  to  the  latter  part  of  this  great  century  to  combine 
and  organize  the  subtle  and  varied  qualities  of  woman's  mind,  and  to  unite 
them  by  the  electric  current  of  sympathy  in  the  divine  work  of  purifying  the 
press  and  lifting  it  to  its  true  plane  of  dignity. 

Miss  Anthony.  Now  we  will  have  a  short  speech  from  Mrs.  Matilda  B. 
Carse,  of  Chicago. 

THE   WOMAN'S    TEMPERANCE    PUBLICATION    ASSOCIATION. 

Mrs.  Carse.  The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  evolved  from 
that  most  unique  of  crusades,  the  women  against  the  saloon.  And  the 
Woman's  Temperance  Publishing  House  evolved  from  the  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union  as  a  most  natural  sequence.  Some  fourteen  years 
ago  the  officers  of  the  National  Society  saw  the  necessity  of  having  an  organ 
as  a  source  of  communication  between  themselves  and  the  local  unions. 
They  had  no  money,  but  they  had  unselfish  devotion,  and  they  said  :  "We 
will  start  an  eight-page  monthly  paper,  edit  it  ourselves,  charge  fifty  cents  per 
year  for  it,  and  after  a  time,  when  the  subscription  list  increases  sufficiently, 
we  will  be  able  to  pay  for  an  editor  and  publisher."  Accordingly  a  few 
devoted  women,  with  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard  as  leader,  started  Our  Union, 
which  was  the  organ  of  the  society  for  seven  years.  Those  who  have  had 
any  experience  in  publishing  a  paper,  starting  it  even  on  a  good  moneyed 
basis,  know  what  uphill  work  it  is  and  what  a  length  of  time  it  takes  before 
it  becomes  self-sustaining.  Only  such  persons  can  fully  understand  what  a 
burden  these  heroic  women  had  to  bear,  besides  being  continually  harassed 
by  debt,  and  forced  at  each  annual  convention  to  make  a  plea  for  money  to 


Professions.  187 

pay  up  last  year's  deficit.  Miss  Willard  and  others  fully  realized  how  per- 
fectly inadequate  such  a  small  monthly  sheet  was  to  rightly  represent  such  a 
growing  cause.  But  in  those  primitive  days  of  the  association,  with  the 
Southern  and  far  Western  States  and  Territories  still  unorganized,  the  leaders 
of  the  movement  had  little  time  to  come  to  a  clear  understanding  as  to  the 
best  method  of  founding  an  organ  on  a  sound  financial  basis  that  would 
worthily  represent  their  cause. 

A  woman,  not  among  the  leaders  of  this  movement,  except  in  her  own 
city  of  Chicago,  where  she  took  an  active  part  in  temperance,  pondered 
deeply  over  the  need  of  temperance  literature  and  the  necessity  of  having  a 
large  weekly  paper  on  a  footing  which  would  insure  both  literary  and  finan- 
cial success.  She  had  seen,  since  the  commencement  of  the  reform,  hun- 
dreds of  temperance  papers  start  that  would  flourish  for  a  few  months  and 
then  die  out  because  they  had  no  financial  backing.  She  was  profoundly 
impressed  that  ii  was  her  duty  to  raise  a  large  sum  of  money  to  start  such  a 
paper.  Miss  Willard's  name  was  at  this  time  beginning  to  be  widely  known 
not  only  as  a  reformer  but  as  a  writer.  She  felt  if  she  could  secure  her  as 
editor  it  would  be  the  means  of  making  the  paper  a  success.  In  the  summer 
of  1879  sne  took  a  long  journey  purposely  to  meet  Miss  Willard  and  confer 
with  her  on  the  matter.  Miss  Willard  entered  heartily  into  the  plan,  but  on 
account  of  other  pressing  work  she  could  not  undertake  the  editorship.  Miss 
Willard's  refusal  of  the  editorship  did  not,  however,  make  the  projector  of. 
the  plan  give  up  the  undertaking.  In  the  following  year  she,  with  six  other 
ladies,  incorporated  the  Woman's  Temperance  Publication  Association,  in 
Chicago,  of  which  she  has  been  the  president  ever  since.  The  capital  stock 
at  first  was  $5,000  ;  shares,  $25.  The  object,  as  stated  in  the  paper  of  incor- 
poration, was  the  publishing  of  a  weekly  temperance  paper,  and  any  other 
publications  the  association  might  deem  desirable.  One  of  the  by-laws  pre- 
cludes men  from  holding  stock  in  the  company.  It  states  that  no  person 
can  hold  stock  except  women  or  members  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union. 

The  first  three  or  four  years  the  work  was  at  times  full  of  discouragement — 
more  money  going  out  than  coming  in  ;  those  who  should  have  been  its 
friends  prophesying  that  it  never  could  be  made  self-sustaining.  The  pro- 
jectors of  it  stood  by  it  faithfully,  however.  Men  began  to  see  there  was 
money  in  it,  and  some  wanted  to  buy  large  amounts  of  stock  and  secure  the 
controlling  interest  in  it.  Much  as  they  needed  money,  these  women  would  as 
soon  have  thought  of  plucking  out  their  eyes  as  of  letting  men,  moved  by  sordid 
considerations,  have  a  controlling  interest  in  it.  The  stock  was  increased 
from  $5,000  to  $15,000;  then  to  $25,000.  The  last  increase,  which  occurred 
the  first  of  this  year,  is  to  $50,000.  The  corporation  saw  $16,000,  over 
receipts,  slip  through  their  fingers  before  the  tide  turned.  In  1884  the  gain 
was  greater  than  the  outlay,  and  in  1885  they  paid  stockholders  four  per  cent. 


188  International  Council  of  Women. 

dividend;  in  1886,  five  per  cent.,  and  in  1887,  six  per  cent.  They  could 
have  declared  a  much  larger  dividend  than  this,  but  they  desired  to  use  the 
money  in  machinery  in  order  to  increase  their  printing  facilities. 

January  15,  1880,  the  first  publication  of  the  Woman's  Temperance  Press 
Association  made  its  appearance.  It  was  a  sixteen-page  weekly  temperance 
paper,  The  Signal;  its  editor  and  publisher,  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Willard.  It 
was  started  in  a  most  modest  way,  desk  room  being  secured  in  the  rooms  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  The  paper  from  the  first 
became  a  favorite,  as  it  could  not  well  do  otherwise  with  such  a  talented 
woman  as  editor.  In  a  few  weeks  the  circulation  had  so  increased  that  a 
publisher  had  to  be  engaged.  The  Signal  did  not  become  the  national 
organ  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  until  November,  1882, 
when  it  was  consolidated  with  Our  Union,  the  monthly  paper  before  alluded 
to  that  had  been  the  organ  of  the  National  Society  for  seven  years. 

The  paper  has  ever  since  been  known  as  The  Union  Signal,  and  has 
attained  a  subscription  list  of  40,000.  It  was  not  until  1884  that  the  associ- 
ation commenced  the  publication  of  miscellaneous  literature.  It  now  pub- 
lishes two  weekly  papers,  five  monthly  papers,  two  quarterlies,  and  a  large 
line  of  books  (including  a  number  written  by  Miss  Willard),  leaflets,  pamph- 
lets, and  music.  The  association  has  sent  out  over  52,000,000  pages  of 
temperance  literature  during  the  past  year.  Their  cash  receipts  have  been, 
during  1887,  $93,000.  Their  property  is  worth  over  $50,000,  consisting  of 
new  machinery  and  type  of  the  most  approved  pattern,  together  with  a  large 
stock  of  finished  and  unfinished  publications,  and  good  ledger  accounts. 
They  have  a  staff  of  six  editors,  all  being  women  except  the  editor  of  ^heir 
German  temperance  paper,  Der  Deutsch-Amerikaner.  The  policy  of  the 
board  of  directors,  which  consists  of  eleven  women,  is  to  give  the  prefer- 
ence to  women  in  all  the  different  departments  of  editing  and  publishing, 
if  they  can  do  equally  as  well  as  men,  and  to  pay  them  as  good  wages  as 
men  get.  Out  of  eighty  persons  employed,  fifty  are  women.  When  we  can 
place  the  $25,000  worth  of  unsold  stock  which  we  now  hold,  it  will  put  us 
in  a  position  to  do  three  times  the  business  we  are  now  doing,  and  pay  a  very 
handsome  dividend  to  all  women  who  invest.  But,  better  than  all,  it  will  sow 
millions  of  temperance  leaves  over  this  land,  which  will  be  for  the  healing 
of  the  nation. 

Miss  Anthony.  Allow  me  to  present  to  you  a  practical  member  of  the 
press,  who  has  carried  her  paper,  single-handed  and  alone,  for  five  years — 
Mrs.  Clara  B.  Colby,  of  Beatrice,  Nebraska,  to  whom  we  are  all  indebted 
for  the  daily  Woman 's  Tribune,  with  its  full  stenographic  report  of  the 
proceedings  of  this  Council. 

After  a  few  remarks,  Mrs.  Colby  recited  the  poem  of  Ella 
Dare,  "Two  in  One,"  when  the  audience  was  dismissed. 


THURSDAY,  MARCH  29,  1888. 


MORNING  SESSION. 


ORGAN  IZATION. 


Matilda  Joslyn  Gage,  Vice-President  at  Large,  of  the 
National  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  presiding. 

Invocation  by  Isabella  Beecher  Hooker,  after  which  the 
audience  joined  in  singing  the  "Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic. " 

Mrs.  Gage.     The  subject  this  morning  is  organization,  and  it  is  one  that 
has  had  great  influence  upon  the  world  in  the  past.     Women  have  not  been 
associated  in  organizations  until  since  the  war  ;  that  is,  to  any  very  great 
extent.     Our  National  Woman's  Suffrage  Association  has  never  been  a  close 
organization.     We  have  been  held  together  rather  by  the  bonds  of  principle 
than  by  those  of  any  external  law.     I  well  remember  the  first  suffrage  con- 
vention I  ever  attended,  in  the  city  of  Syracuse,  in  1852,  the  question  of 
organization  was  discussed,  and  many  who  had  entered  into  this  agitation 
were  very  much  opposed  to  it.     I  recall  a  letter  from  Angelina  Grimk6 
Weld,  who  had  been  obliged  to  leave  her  home  because  she  had  denounced 
the  system  of  slavery.     She  deprecated  artificial  organization,   thinking  it 
rather  tended  to  bind  the  future  as  well  as  the  present.     Lucy  Stone  and 
Ernestine  L.  Rose  also  spoke  against  it.     When  our  war  broke  out  it  created 
a  very  great  change  throughout  the  country.     There  arose  the  sanitary  com- 
missions and  organizations  of  many  kinds.     The  first  Loyal  League  organ- 
ized   in    the    United    States   was  by  women,   and    from  that  time  various 
organizations  have  grown  up  throughout  the  country.     You  will  hear  from 
others  this  morning  who  have   inaugurated  and  carried  forward  the  most 
powerful  of  them,  and  I  hope  in  the  discussion  the  most  liberal  spirit  will 
prevail.     While  we  remember  that  organizations  in  a  certain  way  are  bene- 
ficial, it  is  equally  true  that  some  of  the  greatest  wrongs  that  have  been  done 
to  mankind,  both  materially  and  spiritually,  have  been  under  the  influence 
of  organization.     I  have  now  the  pleasure  of  presenting  one  who  needs  no 
introduction,  whose  "  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic  "  you  have  just  sung, 
the  President  of  the  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Women,  Mrs.  Julia 
Ward  Howe. 

THE    POWER   OF   ORGANIZATION. 

Mrs.  Howe.  I  suppose  the  human  body  has  from  very  early  times  been 
much  thought  of  as  a  model  for  the  body  social  and  politic.  The  old  fable 
of  the  body  and  the  members  exemplifies  this,  as  does  that  adopted  symbol- 
ism which  terms  the  Christian  Church  "  the  Body  of  Christ."     In  old  En- 


190  International  Council  of  Women. 

glish,  and  in  new,  we  use  the  term  body  in  referring  to  various  aggregations 
of  men  or  of  women,  or  both.  We  do  not  call  a  mob  a  body,  for  the  reason 
that  it  has  no  permanent  organization,  but  we  say  a  legislative  body,  a  de- 
liberative body  ;  we  even  say  a  body  of  doctrine.  Why  do  we  use  this  sym- 
bolical expression  ?  What  does  it  mean  to  us  ?  First,  perhaps,  a  recognized 
and  recognizable  form.  A  body  is  something  that  appears;  it  has  distinct 
shape,  form,  and  outline,  and  one  body  is  distinguished  from  other  bodies. 
But  this  is  not  enough  for  our  meaning.  The  term  body,  as  we  use  it, 
symbolically,  means  something  more  than  a  form  ;  it  means  a  form  with  a 
function,  and  I  think  we  use  the  term  with  a  moral  as  well  as  a  material 
significance.  The  body  has  various  members,  through  which  its.  functions 
are  performed.  These  are  not  identical,  but  relative.  They  must  work  in 
harmony  with  each  other,  and  with  a  constant  reference  to  the  central  prin- 
ciple of  life,  which  inspires  and  commissions  them,  and  to  which  they  in  turn 
are  bound  to  minister. 

Thus  far  the  symbol  is  appropriate  and  expressive  ;  but  as  a  moral  and  a 
material  life  only  partially  parallel  each  other,  we  shall  find  it  important 
to  show  when  our  symbol  ceases  to  express  our  thought.  The  human  body  is 
an  organism.  It  did  not  call  itself  together.  It  can  not  keep  itself  from 
dissolution.  The  working  bodies  of  human  society  are  organizations.  The 
elements  which  compose  them  are  brought  together  by  intelligent  effort  and 
will.  They  can  modify  their  plans  and  objects  endlessly.  They  are  self- 
creating  and  self-destroying. 

Woe  to  us  women  if  in  drawing  a  plan  of  organization  we  forget  the  laws 
which  govern  organisms.  The  ant  and  the  bee  have  each  their  social  mech- 
anism, and  prosper  by  obeying  its  requisitions.  The  mother  tyranny  of  na- 
ture makes  them  unchangeable.  Caring  for  the  safety  and  prosperity  of  the 
type,  she  allows  its  representatives  to  try'  no  experiments,  run  no  risks. 
What  the  ant  B  C  did,  the  ant  A  D  probably  does  with  as  little  variation  as 
possible.  Into  the  organisms  of  human  society  a  principle  enters  which  is 
foreign  to  animal  life.  Progress  is  the  foremost  characteristic  of  man.  His 
social  organisms  must  expand,  must  meet  new  needs,  and  take  account  of 
new  circumstances,  and  then  must  contend  for  a  time  with  life,  and  die,  if 
need  be,  leaving  always  their  seed  in  the  world,  from  which,  with  the  new 
generations,  the  new  societies  are  formed. 

With  all  that  the  imperfections  of  human  wisdom  leave  for  us  to  divine, 
we  have  yet  great  reason  to  rejoice  both  at  the  increasing  development  of 
organizing  power  and  the  improved  aims  and  spirit  of  the  associations  organ- 
ized. In  the  states  of  Greece,  especially  in  Attica,  we  see  the  intense  form 
of  organization,  essentially  military  and  self-asserting,  the  ethics  of  a  local 
patriotism,  its  measure,  and  inspiration.  In  the  Roman  state  we  see  this 
power  in  its  extensive  form.  A  larger,  a  cosmopolitan  idea  pervades  the 
mighty  empire.     The  Roman  eagles  carry  on  their  wings  the  breath  of  toler- 


Organization.  191 

ation.  With  this,  Pilate  weakly  interposes  in  behalf  of  Jesus,  but,  finding 
the  Jewish  fanaticism  so  strong,  washes  his  hands  of  the  great  responsibility. 
The  power  of  civil  and  military  organization,  resting  upon  reasonable  law 
and  useful  discipline,  conquered  the  heart  of  the  Old  World,  and  Greece 
herself  was  fain  to  seek  its  protection.  But  in  all  of  these  instances  the  old 
proverb  of  ' '  Two  can  play  at  a  game  ' '  fulfilled  itself.  The  peoples  conquered 
by  military  skill,  themselves  acquired  the  art  of  war.  The  barbarians,  out- 
witted by  civilization,  themselves  became  civilized.  The  empire  crumbles  ; 
the  republic  of  nations  founds  itself.  Force  and  fraud  go  together.  Organ- 
izations which  employ  the  one  must  avail  themselves  of  the  other.  Hence, 
military  and  diplomatic  strategy  are  largely  founded  upon  deceit,  and  its 
weakness  is  shown  in  their  results,  which  are  constantly  shifting  and  chang- 
ing. 

The  great  beneficent  organizations  of  to-day  have  a  deeper  foundation — 
a  more  permanent  character.  The  good  they  seek  is  wrought  at  no  man's 
expense  ;  for,  though  all  benevolent  undertakings  cost  money,  they  do  not 
plunder  nor  defraud  anyone,  since  it  is  best  for  all  parties  that  society  should 
pay  its  honest  debts.  With  all  that  we  can  derive  or  do  in  this  line  an 
immense  deficit  still  remains  on  the  side  of  might  against  right.  First  of 
all,  let  us  ask,  what  organization  can  do  and  what  it  can  not.  It  can  so 
embody  the  general  interests  of  humanity  as  to  set  them  before  the  world 
as  taking  necessary  precedence  of  merely  natural  objects  and  predilections. 
It  can  build  a  capital  of  the  nation,  in  which  north  and  south,  east  and 
west,  white,  black,  red,  and  tawny  yellow,  may  meet,  and  all  may  say,  "My 
capital  and  my  country."  In  the  great  names  of  religion,  patriotism,  and 
morality,  it  can  call  together  vast  assemblies  and  realize  the  inspired  line  of 

Shakespeare  : 

"  One  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin." 

But,  as  organization  works  with  human  materials,  it  can  not  escape  the 
doom  and  danger  of  things  unseen.  Physical  life  maintains  itself  by  the 
seclusion  of  forces  in  the  small  compass  of  an  animal  form.  Family  life 
maintains  itself  in  the  seclusion  of  home.  The  city  must  take  care  of  itself 
as  a  city,  the  state  as  a  state.  In  other  words,  the  limited,  particular  ques- 
tions of  each  one's  life  are  so  important  that  they  must  not  be  lost  sight  of 
in  the  work  of  generalizing  ideas.  Morality  would  suffer  instead  of  gaining, 
if  we  should  postpone  the  care  of  health,  the  economy  of  the  household, 
the  administration  of  our  town,  village,  or  district  to  speculative  study  or 
missionary  enterprise.  The  difficulty  of  organization,  or  at  least  one  of  its 
difficulties,  is  in  the  reconciliation  of  the  far  and  the  near,  the  regulation  of 
relations  between  the  particular  and  the  general. 

Now  comes  in  the  power  of  truth  over  human  hearts.  If  your  central 
principle  is  genuine  it  will  command  the  currents  of  conviction  from  the 
northern  to  the  southern  extremity.     Organization  must,  therefore,  found 


192  International  Council  of  Women. 

itself  upon  an  universal  and  availing  interest.  But  this  principle  enunciated 
may  turn  out  to  be  only  a  name.  The  banner  of  a  great  cause  may  be  raised 
•aloft  by  wretches  whose  intention  is  to  betray  it.  Every  sublime  word  that 
men  can  utter  may  be  used  to  cheat  and  juggle  with.  The  more  widespread 
the  enthusiasm  the  more  possible  the  delusion.  How  shall  we,  who  must  in 
everything  trust  to  those  who  shall  act  for  us,  how  shall  we  be  able  to  assure 
ourselves  that  they  do  act  for  what  we  intend  and  believe  in  ?  This  assur- 
ance can  only  be  very  partially  given  and  very  cautiously  accepted.  The 
price  of  freedom  is  said  to  be  eternal  vigilance.  The  same  price  must  be 
paid  for  every  condition  of  the  public  weal.  I  will  name  three  condi- 
tions which  must  combine  to  make  this  vigilance  :  (i,)  we  must  be  loyal 
to  the  name  in  which  we  associate;  (2,)  we  must  make  matters  in  our 
immediate  neighborhood  conform  to  it ;  (3,)  we  must  assure  ourselves  of  the 
character  and  ability  of  those  who  assume  to  represent  it. 

No  device  that  I  know  of  in  history  so  well  answers  these  three  purposes 
as  does  the  combination  which  our  own  social  system  presents  :  the  relig- 
ious liberty  which  is  indispensable  to  moral  and  intellectual  sincerity  ;  the 
general  good  level  of  popular  education  ;  and,  last  and  not  least,  the  fact  of 
universal  suffrage.  And  this  brings  me  the  opportunity  to  salute  with  honor 
those  who  first  saw  and  dared  to  say  that  suffrage  in  America  was  only  half 
universal,  and  that  no  man  was  fully  enfranchised  whose  wife  and  mother 
and  daughter  did  not  share  his  state  of  freedom.  Honor  to  this  great  name, 
to  this  great  principle  of  suffrage,  this  true  human  instrument  in  the  name 
of  the  divine  principle.  Everybody's  opportunity,  everybody's  right ;  honor 
to  it  in  the  name  of  freedom,  justice,  and  humanity. 

There  are  three  elements  of  society  which  we  must  consider  in  any  attempt 
at  organization.  We  might  call  them  component  classes.  There  is  the  class 
of  leaders,  small  in  number,  powerful  from  its  correspondence  with  certain 
inherent  needs  of  the  body  politic.  There  is  the  class  of  the  led,  powerful  in 
numbers  and  in  the  multiplication  of  sympathy.  This  is,  by  far,  the  larger 
class  of  the  two  already  mentioned.  The  third  is  a  class  of  medium  extent, 
slow  and  resolute  of  movement — a  class  whose  members  neither  aspire  to 
lead  nor  submit  to  be  led.  This  is  a  deliberative  class.  Of  the  two  before 
mentioned,  the  first  is  autocratic,  while  the  second  is  democratic.  The 
class  which  I  have  placed  between  these  two  is  parliamentary.  In  all  organi- 
zations the  position  of  this  class  is  very  important.  The  autocratics  natu- 
rally tend  to  tyranny.  The  demos  naturally  tend  to  a  slavish  following. 
The  parliamentals  restrain  the  one  and  instruct  the  other.  They  are  the 
safeguards  of  all  liberties.  Where  their  action  is  unimpeded,  autocracy  may 
make  its  review  with  the  least  danger  of  exceeding  its  bounds.  But  the 
demos  should  look  to  it  that  this  slow  and  substantial  stratum  of  character 
be  not  eliminated  nor  suppressed,  for  the  greatest  danger  to  society  lies  in 
the  arbitrary  procedure  of  the  autocrat  and   the  thoughtless  or  passionate 


Organization.  193 

acquiesence  of  the  demos.  Where  the  parliamentals  have  fair  play  this  dan- 
ger, which  always  exists,  is  known  and  averted. 

My  belief  in  this  analysis  of  society  has  made  me  distrustful  of  its  would- 
be  leaders,  the  people  who  are  nothing  if  not  supreme,  and  who  endeavor 
with  a  fabricated  reputation  to  ensnare  the  suffrage  of  the  unknowing  multi- 
tude. Even  if  they  have  real  power  and  talent,  I  look  upon  their  predom- 
inance as  hurtful  to  society,  and  responsible  for  many  of  its  mischiefs.  I 
am,  therefore,  always  concerned  in  the  freedom  and  dignity  of  the  parlia- 
mentary body,  whose  office  is  to  digest  and  assimilate  the  various  elements 
which  enter  into  life  and  action.  Of  course,  this  class  is  not  infallible, 
nothing  is,  but  the  Divine.  It  may  be  cajoled,  deceived,  it  may  be  bought 
and  sold,  in  which  case  the  body  politic  will  come  to  grief.  But  in  its 
honest  and  intelligent  action  I  find  the  greatest  security  for  any  and  all 
association. 

I  have  had  the  honor,  for  some  years  past,  to  be  the  president  of  a 
modest  association  which  calls  itself  an  "Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Women."  We  hold  an  annual  conference.  We  have  responsible  com- 
mittees ;  we  are  not  heralded  here  and  elsewhere  with  high-sounding  names. 
What  I  claim  for  our  convention  is  that  its  action  is  neither  autocratic  nor 
slavish,  but  that  we  have  worked  in  our  measure  to  make  it  truly  represent- 
ative. I  recognize  the  merit  of  much  larger  associations,  and  shall  look 
with  interest  upon  any  extensive  plans  which  may  grow  out  of  the  present 
interesting  assemblage  of  women.  But  my  advice  to  all  would  be,  take  care 
always  to  have  a  strong  deliberative  body  of  responsible  officers  between  your 
leaders  and  your  led. 

The  immense  distances  which  our  country  includes  are  an  element  of 
weakness  which  can  only  be  counterbalanced  by  careful  and  responsible 
work  in  various  localities.  What  can  Florida  know  about  Maine  ?  Dakota 
about  Boston  and  New  York  ?  If  the  central  thought  which  unites  us  is  a 
valid  and  valuable  one,  the  thoughtful  women  in  Florida,  in  Canada,  in 
Colorado,  in  Utah,  will  be  able  to  group  themselves  around  it.  The  office 
of  our  deliberative  class  will  be,  first,  to  see  that  the  central  thought  is  every- 
where adequately  understood ;  secondly,  to  see  that  the  thinkers  and  their 
conclusions  are  fairly  represented. 

I  am  anxious  to  say  one  word  here  regarding  two  aspects  of  association, 
which  we  may  term  the  general  and  the  particular.  I  value  the  unity  of 
feeling  and  of  sympathy  which  can  gather  the  suffrages  of  women  throughout 
the  country  in  favor  of  any  great  question  of  moral  advancement,  like  the 
temperance  reform,  for  example.  The  church  universal  waves  its  banner  over 
us,  and  we  are  glad  to  acknowledge  our  allegiance  to  it,  but  the  general 
alliance  can  not  take  the  place  of  particular  alliances  made  within  close 
limits  of  township  neighborhoods.  In  any  general  alliance  some  valuable 
elements  of  power  are  necessarily  lost.     Personality  is  for  the  moment  sac- 


94  International  Council  of  Women. 

rificed  to  union.  We  wish  to  stand  with  united  front  when  we  champion 
any  large  movement,  but  the  divisions  and  subdivisions  of  individual  policy 
and  preference  have  much  to  do  with  keeping  society  up  to  its  true  standard. 
There  are  fine,  even  infinitesimal  questions,  which  can  not  be  properly  dis- 
pensed with.  When  the  passion  for  participating  in  general  action  over- 
sweeps  the  community  too  strongly,  their  critical  processes  of  thought,  of 
study,  if  not  paralyzed,  are  at  heart  discouraged  and  hindered  from  bringing 
about  their  proper  result.  The  work  of  the  Woman's  Club,  on  the  other 
hand,  seems  to  me  calculated  to  remedy  the  defects  inherent  in  widespread 
association.  Each  club  takes  up  its  little  burthen,  devises  its  plans  of  work, 
solves  its  own  problems,  and  fulfills  its  own  tasks.  The  influence  which  they 
have  already  exerted  in  various  communities  is  very  great,  and  in  the  main, 
I  must  think,  very  good. 

We  have  been  summoned  here  under  the  prestige  of  a  very  attractive  and 
inclusive  name — that  of  an  International  Council  of  Women.  Surely,  from 
our  coming  together  much  good  ought  to  result.  National  limitations  and 
prejudices  may  be  effaced,  and  a  broader  and  more  hopeful  good-will  may 
hereafter  unite  our  efforts  for  public  and  private  weal  in  many  a  remote  lo- 
cality. But  let  us  go  back  from  this  enlargement  to  work  all  the  more  in- 
dustriously within  our  own  bounds.  The  limitation  of  the  home  is  a  precious 
one  for  us  women,  seeing  that  home,  which  is  conceded  to  be  our  special 
province,  is  at  once  college  and  court,  church  and  sanitarium.  The  public 
health,  the  public  religion,  the  public  morality,  are  all  dependent  upon  the 
intimate  springs  and  sources  of  private  life.  Local  clubs  and  associations 
enlarge  the  limits  of  the  home,  still  keeping  the  precious  aroma  of  individual 
feeling  and  character.  If  the  home  and  the  club  are  faithfully  administered, 
with  due  regard  to  the  claims  and  gifts  of  each  and  every  one,  then  the  great 
meetings  which  may  be  called  from  time  to  time  will  have  a.  genuine  office 
and  outcome. 

A  point  to  bear  strongly  in  mind  in  the  present  connection  is  the 
heredity  of  organizations.  Christ,  perhaps,  thought  of  this  when  he  said 
to  his  disciples:  "Other  men  have  labored,  and  ye  have  entered  into  their 
labors."  Unquestionably  the  Jewish  Church,  iconoclast  as  was  its  great 
founder,  inherited  much  from  what  the  Bible  calls  the  wisdom  of  Egypt,  and, 
at  a  later  day,  from  the  religious  philosophy  of  the  Persians.  The  Christian 
Church  inherited  from  Judaism.  Nor  is  this  inheritance  confined  to  relig- 
ious bodies.  Philanthropic  and  humanitarian  organizations  also  inherit 
values  which  are  constant  and  steadfast  in  the  moral  world.  To  name  only 
a  single  instance,  let  us  acknowledge  how  much  the  Woman  Suffrage  move- 
ment inherited  from  the  Anti-Slavery  organizations.  I  love  to  look  through 
the  vista  of  glories  which  lies  behind  us  to  the  faithful  souls  who,  from  cen- 
tury to  century,  have  kept  and  handed  down  the  truth  and  its  methods. 
Very  momentous  to  us,  my  dear  sisters,  should  be  the  thought  of  the  organ- 
ization which  the  generation  following  us  will  inherit  from  our  own. 


Organization.  195 

The  business  world  is  full  of  organized  robbery.  The  political  world  is 
full  of  organized  injustice.  The  religious  world  is  organized  to  uphold  in- 
spiration and  intolerance.  The  military  world  is  the  stronghold  of  whole- 
sale murder  and  spoliation.  Who  will  organize  a  brave  and  patriotic  resist- 
ance to  all  these  evils?  Can  we  women  with  white  hair  go  peacefully  to  our 
graves  leaving  the  young  generations  bound  hand  and  foot  in  the  slavery  of 
evil  institutions?  I  hope  that  from  this  Council  a  new  influence  will  go  out, 
that  so  wide  an  agreement  among  the  mothers  and  daughters  of  men  will 
leave  its  mark  upon  the  laws  and  customs  which  we  shall  bequeath  to  posterity. 

The  doctrine  of  redeeming  love  is  the  great  glory  of  Christianity.  This 
is  simply  the  doctrine  that  evil  is  overcome  of  good,  and  that  the  great  vic- 
tories of  the  Divine  are  the  victories  of  love.  Now,  my  dear  ones,  this  love 
for  humanity  which  God  puts  into  our  cradles  as  his  initial  gift,  which  puts 
itself  at  interest  in  the  training  of  family  life,  which  receives  in  the  church 
the  mission  to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature, 
is  the  love  which  is  to  redeem  the  world  from  its  greed,  its  injustice,  its  bar- 
barism. Let  this  be  the  key-note  of  all  that  we  shall  attempt  in  thinking 
and  acting  in  common.  Out  of  it  alone  can  come  the  great  moral  and 
social  harmonies,  whose  armies  usher  in  the  new  heaven  and  new  earth, 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

Mrs.  Gage.  I  have  great  pleasure  in  introducing  Miss  Mary  F.  Eastman, 
another  delegate  from  the  Association  for  the  Advancemeut  of  Women. 

Miss  Eastman.  Dr.  Holmes,  over  the  tea-cups,  has  lately  added  a  beati- 
tude to  those  which  are  canonical,  and  says:  "  Blessed  are  those  who  say 
our  good  things  for  us."  On  that  theory  I  shall  have  to  confess  that  blessed 
is  my  predecessor.  I  was  sure  she  would  say  them  all,  and  say  them  so  that 
we  may  feel,  as  some  one  else  has  said,  our  ow  1  rejected  thoughts  come  back 
to  us  with  a  certain  alienated  majesty.  I  have  had  long  experience  in  this. 
I  have,  therefore,  thought  it  best  not  to  read  from  manuscript,  which  would 
have  given  me  the  privilege  of  keeping  within  my  prescribed  limits,  but  to 
add  what  random  thpughts  have  come  to  me  as  supplemental  to  what  my 
friend  has  so  well  said. 

In  organization  we  recognize  a  relatively  high  state  of  development,  and 
know  also  that  development  increases  through  organization.  The  lowest 
matter  in  the  scale  is  that  which  is  unorganized.  We  speak  of  it  as  inert. 
Organized  matter  suggests  activity.  Organization  means  to  an  end — for  a 
purpose.  It  tells  of  use.  It  hints  of  service.  Duty  inheres  in  it.  Organ- 
ization means  that  facts  are  specialized,  and  that  thereby  we  increase  the 
points  of  contact  with  the  outer  world.  It  means,  also,  that  each  part  fits 
harmoniously  into  all  the  others.  This  we  may  apply  to  ttte  physical,  and 
no  less  to  the  social,  world;  and  in  the  latter  nothing  indicates  better  how 
far  we  are  developed  than  how  far  we  are  fitted  to  combine  with  others  for 
noble  uses. 


196  International  Council  of  Women. 

Nothing  has  more  discouraged  progress  than  the  commonly-held  belief 
that  this  was  true  of  only  half  the  race  ;  that  the  other  half — the  better  share, 
as  they  were  in  the  habit  of  calling  it — should  cherish  self-seeking  narrow- 
ness and  exclusiveness.  You  recollect,  perhaps,  some  years  ago,  in  i\\z  Popu- 
lar Science  Monthly,  a  very  learned  article,  which  went  to  prove  that  women 
were  centripetal  and  men  centrifugal.  In  fancy  it  was  argued  almost  to  a 
demonstration.  I  remember  that  it  came  to  so  fine  a  point  as  this :  That 
women  were  actually  said  to  button  their  dresses  centripetally,  while  men 
buttoned  their  clothes  centrifugally.  I  think,  my  friends,  that  with  all  of  us 
this  theory  must  long  since  have  been  abandoned.  We  must  recognize  that 
variety  is  essential  to  life ;  that  largeness  is  our  aim,  not  narrowness ;  that 
reaching  out  to  others  should  be  the  law  of  our  being. 

Nothing  is  more  a  feature  of  the  time,  perhaps,  than  the  tendency  to  form 
organizations.  We  have  come  to  regard  humanity,  not  as  complete  or  ex- 
pressed in  individuals,  but  as  a  solidarity.  We  have  learned  that  what  serves 
one  serves  all ;  that  nothing  that  is  not  for  the  general  good  can  possibly  be 
good  for  individuals.  As  an  outgrowth  of  this  has  come  the  tendency  to 
clasp  hands.  Rev.  Edward  Everett  Hale  has  said  well  that  there  is  not  so 
sad  a  word  in  the  whole  English  language  as  "apart ;  "  none  so  blessed  as 
"together."  In  obedience  to  such  a  consciousness  we  are  reaching  out 
more  and  more  to  others,  and  this  is  indicated  by  the  multiplication  of  asso- 
ciations for  common  work  or  purpose.  We  are  coming  to  comprehend  as  a 
living  reality  that  "where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  My  name 
there  am  I — the  Christ — with  them."  Whenever  one  of  us  touches  heart 
and  hand  with  another  we  are  mindful  of  an  inflaming  of  the  spirit  which  we 
do  not  get  alone.  The  value  of  organizations  depends,  of  course,  upon  their 
aim  and  the  spirit  in  which  they  are  carried  out.  The  power  is  that  of  the 
compound  lever,  which^easily  becomes  a  crushing  if  it  be  not  a  consecrated 
one.  Witness  the  trusts  which  so  grievously  threaten  the  community,  so  that 
the  Boston  Transcript  says  "it  is  easier  to  organize  a  trust  than  it  is  to  trust 
an  organization."     *     *     * 

In  association,  feeling,  and  especially  selfish  feeling,  gets  the  least  possible 
chance.  If  it  comes  to  the  front,  as  it  is  almost  sure  to  do,  it  shows  itself 
repulsive  even  to  the  possessor.  "  I  didn't  think  I  looked  like  that,"  said  a 
little  girl,  in  a  dissatisfied  tone,  as  she  looked  at  her  photograph.  In  our 
work  together,  when  we  are  off  guard  as  to  appearances,  our  character  por- 
traits get  taken  instantaneously ;  and,  unawares,  we  sometimes  get  views  of 
ourselves  which  are  not  flattering,  though  they  may  be  serviceable.  Kinder- 
garten is  the  place  where  it  is  systematically  cultivated  on  the  true  basis. 
Sometimes  I  think  that  about  all  the  legal  complications,  the  personal  antag- 
onisms, and  the  confusions  of  the  world  come  from  this  lack  of  a  clear  sense 
of  the  line  beyond  which  I  may  not,  without  intrusion,  approach  you,  and 
you  may  not  approach  me.     If  we  could  once  settle  this,  what  a  world  of 


Organization.  197 

interference,  of  impertinence,  and  of  meddlesomeness  which  sum  up  so  many 
of  the  banes  of  life  would  disappear.  Let  me,  or,  if  need  be,  teach  me  to 
remember  that  thus  far  and  no  farther  may  I  come  to  you  even  with  help  or 
suggestion,  and  that  these  are  to  be  accepted  or  rejected  at  your  discretion 
or  option.  If  I  press  farther,  just  there  your  absolute  right,  I  had  almost 
said  your  obligation,  to  resist,  both  for  your  sake  and  mine,  begins. 

In  organization  most  of  us  discover  something  which  we  have  heretofore 
lacked,  in  which,  my  friends,  I  think  we  find  a  supplement  of  our  imperfect 
selves.  None  of  us,  I  suppose,  has  ever  undertaken  movements  of  importance 
without  misgivings  from  a  sense  of  lack  of  power.  Measuring  ourselves 
against  the  task  it  is  sure  to  prove  the  larger.  How  inspiriting,  then,  it  is 
to  clasp  hands  with  others  set  to  the  same  purposes  and  possessing,  perhaps, 
the  very  gifts  we  lack.  We  feel  that  together  we  have  become  an  electric  bat- 
tery, and  that  the  charge  of  one  is  the  charge  of  all.  How  many  times  in  my 
own  experience  have  the  discouragements  all  vanished  when  I  came  into  my 
organization  and  found  my  incompleteness  rounded  out  by  the  powers  of 
others.  I  think  we  must  consider  that  we  are  not  so  much  individual 
people,  living  for  and  in  ourselves,  but  that  all  of  us  make  the  one,  and  that 
individuals  are  but  specialized  members  of  this  great  body. 

The  other  day  I  saw  a  marvelous  picture  in  stone — a  mosaic  as  exquisitely 
shaded  as  if  by  the  artist's  brush — here  a  bit  of  solid  color  melted  into  the 
blue  of  the  sky,  there  another  gave  life  to  the  tree  and  helped  to  suggest  the 
human  figure,  and  all  combined  harmoniously.  So  we  are  all  helping  to  build 
humanity,  bit  by  bit,  and  it  matters  very  little  which  part  of  the  picture 
falls  to  us,  but  it  greatly  concerns  us  not  to  mar  the  whole.  In  such  a  view, 
we  are  sure  not  to  miss  the  lessons  both  of  self-respect  and  the  respect  due  to 
humanity.  In  the  attrition  of  opinion,  which  comes  necessarily  in  organized 
work,  it  may  be  thought  that  antagonisms  are  likely  to  be  developed.  So  far 
as  I  have  observed  associations  of  women,  the  result  has  been  quite  otherwise. 
The  necessity  of  viewing  matters  from  a  common  standpoint,  tends  to  gen- 
erous effort  to  observe  from  the  point  of  view  of  others,  and  to  give  fair  con- 
sideration to  argument — a  habit  which  can  not  fail  to  broaden  the  mind  and 
quicken  the  sympathies.  I  could  open  to  your  observation  such  counselings 
of  committees  as  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  sit  with  for  the  past  few  days,  and 
many  a  time  before,  where  earnestness  of  advocacy  combined  with  courtesy, 
where  fairness  characterized  the  judgment,  and  where  each  seemed,  at  least, 
to  be  "  in  honor  preferring  one  another." 

Men  gain  by  their  study  of  public  interests,  an  invaluable  training  in  ques- 
tions of  right  as  between  man  and  man,  as  well  as  of  abstract  justice,  from 
which  women  are,  most  unfortunately,  generally  debarred.  Nothing  is  bet- 
ter for  us  than  to  be  driven  back  to  principles.  And  this  brings  me  to  a 
point  which  I  think  of  paramount  importance  for  all  to  learn — that  is,  a 
quick  sense  of  respect  for  the   limitations  of  personal  rights.     While  this 


198  International  Council  of  Women. 

should  be  held  a  most  valuable  part  of  all  training,  I  think  only  the  kinder- 
garten gives  it  in  a  systematic  way.     *     *     * 

Mrs.  Gage.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  Mrs.  Abby  Morton  Diaz, 
of  Boston,  who  represents  the  Woman's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union 
of  that  city. 

Mrs.  Diaz.  Taking  mankind  generally,  one-half  as  the  complement  of 
the  other  half,  it  is  not  well  in  carrying  on  the  world's  work  that  the  man 
element  should  alone  be  prominent  and  predominant;  you  want  both.  It 
is  not  well  that  man  should  be  alone.  I  was  at  a  meeting  of  the  Women's 
Press  Association  in  Boston  a  little  while  ago,  and  men  were  there  as  guests. 
Every  editor  present  testified  to  this — that  journalism  was  much  improved 
since  women  had  come  to  take  part  in  it ;  and  that  is  one  broad  principle 
that  will  run  through  everything — through  all  our  charities,  through  all  our 
institutions.  On  our  boards  of  insane  asylums,  charitable  institutions,  and 
lying-in  hospitals,  it  is  not  well  that  man  should  be  alone  ;  we  must  have  the 
woman  element  in  them.  Yet,  if  you  will  look  at  the  reports  of  children's 
hospitals,  asylums  of  all  kinds,  and  a  great  many  institutions  where  women 
and  children  are  brought,  you  will  find  no  woman's  name  among  the  direct- 
ors.    All  are  controlled  by  men. 

The  world,  as  you  might  say,  has  been  allowed  to  go  on  with  a  part  of 
itself,  and  you  might  compare  it  to  a  gig  trying  to  run  on  one  wheel, 
dragging  the  other  after  it.  What  you  want  is  to  take  up  that  other  wheel, 
put  it  in  its  place  and  let  it  help  carry,  instead  of  being  drawn  along.  The 
first  step  is  to  elevate  woman.  This  is  the  aim  of  the  Women's  Educational 
and  Industrial  Union,  74  Boylston  street,  Boston.  The  institution  is  free  to 
all  women  and  open  from  nine  in  the  morning  until  nine  at  night.  We  have 
our  placards  in  the  railroad  stations,  and  often  women  come  to  us  who  have 
just  landed  on  our  shores.  Any  woman  who  goes  to  our  union  will  find  a 
safe  place  to  ask  questions,  whether  she  wants  advice  or  local  information, 
whether  she  wants  companionship  or  protection.  My  object  in  coming  here 
is  to  speak  not  so  much  of  the  work  of  that  institution  as  to  wake  an  interest 
in  it,  and  help  establish  a  system  to  have  one  in  every  city  and  town. 

Our  society  has  a  committee  of  ladies  who,  each  in  turn,  sits  at  the  desk, 
to  act  as  lady  of  the  house  and  answer  all  questions,  and  is  sort  of  general 
directory,  giving  local  information  in  relation  to  all  institutions  of  whatever 
nature,  public  or  private.  Then  we  have  a  library  and  reading-room,  to  which 
all  women  are  welcome.  The  Entertainment  Committee  has  weekly  recep- 
tions, to  which  all  who  choose  may  come.  The  Employment  Committee 
gets  situations  as  far  as  practicable  for  those  out  of  employment.  Besides 
the  regular  persons  having  charge  of  carrying  on  all  the  business,  there  is  a 
supplemental  committee  of  ladies  who  come  one  at  a  time  to  talk  with  the 
women  who  apply  for  work  and  give  them  their  sympathy  and  friendship. 
The  Industrial  Department  disposes  of  what  is  made  by  women.  There  are 
now  over  700  consignors.  Last  year  there  was  over  $26,000  worth  sold,  the 
larger  part  being  food. 


Organization.  199 

The  Employment  Committee  gets  situations,  not  only  for  domestic  serv- 
ants, but  for  what  are  called  the  higher  employments.  Connected  with 
the  industrial  department  is  a  lunch-room,  where  food  can  be  bought  at 
moderate  prices,  and  where  any  woman  or  girl  may  bring  her  own  lunch. 
The  protective  department  gets  the  wages  of  women  who  are  defrauded  of 
them.  We  have  lawyers  who  work  without  charge,  and  every  woman,  no 
matter  how  little  is  kept  from  her,  is  protected.  We  are  now  known  so  well 
as  to  have  become  a  terror  in  the  city.  Men  and  women  who  owe  their 
employees  sometimes  pay  the  debt  under  the  threat  of  being  brought  to  the 
Women's  Union.  Then  we  try  to  benefit  women  in  every  possible  way. 
Ultimately,  we  hope  to  reach  them  in  jails,  in  prisons,  in  police  stations, 
wherever  they  need  the  friendship,  protection  and  sympathy  of  woman ; 
that  is  what  we  mean  to  do.  There  are  two  underlying  principles  to  our 
work.  One  is,  we  meet  on  a  human  basis.  We  are  not  organized  to  reach 
any  particular  class.  We  meet  for  mutual  help.  Usually,  when  people  wish 
to  do  good,  they  think  they  must  go  down  and  seek  the  repulsively  bad ;  but 
badness  is  badness  wherever  found,  and  we  recognize  that  all  have  needs,  and 
that  those  needs  may  exist  among  the  fashionable  and  well-to-do,  as  well  as 
among  those  of  the  lower  ranks.  We  think  the  rich  are  just  as  well  worth 
saving  as  the  poor,  and  we  deplore  the  waste  of  energy  that  exists  among 
well-to-do  women.  We  think  it  just  as  much  the  purpose  of  philanthropy  to 
take  a  rich  woman  who  is  devoted  to  frivolities,  and  arouse  in  her  a  purpose 
to  help  her  kind  and  bring  out  all  that  is  good  in  her,  as  to  take  a  poor 
woman  and  give  her  a  way  of  earning  her  own  living  or  teaching  her  to  read. 

There  is  a  stigma  put  on  a  certain  kind  of  sin,  and  a  woman  is  sometimes 
called  a  fallen  woman.  Oh,  my  friends,  she  is  a  fallen  woman  who  falls  into 
conceit ;  she  is  a  fallen  woman  who  falls  from  integrity ;  she  is  a  fallen 
woman  who  falls  into  selfishness — that  is  degradation,  wherever  existing — 
and  those  must  be  helped  to  rise,  and  we  must  call  them  together  and  help 
them  to  feel  their  needs.  If  you  will  look  at  the  statements  of  the  biogra- 
phers you  will  always  find  in  the  dedication,  if  it  is  a  great  man,  that  he 
owed  all  he  was  to  his  mother.  The  orators,  the  press,  the  pulpits,  and  the 
platforms  are  always  saying  the  woman  of  to-day  is  the  queen  of  to-mor- 
row. The  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  guides  the  world.  Let  us  add  that, 
therefore,  which  the  oracles  never  think  to  add — give  this  queen  a  royal 
preparation  for  her  royal  duties.  That  is  just  what  we  want  to  do.  In  saying 
this  I  by  no  means  ignore  the  responsibilities  of  the  fathers,  but  the  mothers  do 
have  the  more  abiding  opportunities ;  they  have  the  early  chances  for  forming 
the  character. 

Character  is  king,  it  is  the  royal  thing ;  you  must  make  way  for  it.  Take 
this  little  chain,  individuals  make  the  country,  character  makes  the  individual, 
mothers  have  the  large  part  of  the  work  of  making  character;,  therefore 
elevate  the  mothers  ;  bring  them  together  and  make  them  think.     Thought 


200  International  Council  of  Women. 

is  the  power  that  rules  the  world.  Therefore,  every  gathering  of  thoughtful 
women"  leads  on  the  work,  and  this  is  one  of  the  offices  of  our  society ;  we 
have  what  we  call  coteries  where  we  come  together  to  discuss  the  problems 
of  the  day.  I  want  one  of  these  societies  in  every  city  as  a  center  of  enlight- 
enment, sending  out  its  influence  over  the  nation  and  finally  over  the  world. 
Miss  Anthony.  To  some  of  the  young  people  who  are  here  I  would  like 
to  say  that  Mrs.  Diaz  is  the  woman  who  wrote  the  "Schoolmaster's  Trunk." 
Mrs.  Gage.  I  now  invite  Mrs.  Marilla  M.  Hills,  of  Dover,  N.  H.,  who  is 
in  her  eighty-second  year,  to  say  a  few  words.  Mrs.  Hills  was  the  originator 
and  founder  of  the  missionary  work  of  the  Free  Baptist  Church. 

Mrs.  Hills.  I  count  it  one  of  the  greatest  privileges  my  Heavenly  Father 
has  ever  given  me  to  meet  this  grand  Council  of  earnest,  consecrated,  cul- 
tured women.  I  come  as  the  humble  representative  of  the  Free  Baptist 
Woman's  Missionary  Society.  As  a  people  we  are  one  of  the  smaller  tribes 
of  God's  Israel,  but  from  the  commencement  of  our  denominational  life  our 
sisterhood  have  ever  been  found  in  advanced  lines  of  work  for  the  elevation 
of  woman,  and  we  have  always  had  a  few  women  as  preachers  among  us. 
As  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  the  Free  Baptists  were  the  first  to 
establish  a  Woman's  Missionary  Society.  This  was  done  in  1840.  Previous 
to  our  organization  there  had  been  a  few  local  ones  in  one  or  two  societies, 
but  no  general  work  that  extended  throughout  the  denomination. 

In  1873  we  reorganized  and  made  some  change  in  our  name  and  in  our 
method  of  work.  Among  our  missionaries  sent  to  India  are  five  sisters,  the 
daughters  of  our  pioneer  missionary,  Rev.  J.  Phillips.  All  these  girls  were 
students  at  the  college  at  Hinsdale,  Mich.  We  did  not  know  that  we  were  so 
rich  in  gifted  and  brilliant  minds.  To  one  of  these,  Mrs.  Brewster,  my 
co-delegate,  I  feel  that  we  owe  very  much.  For  nearly  nine  years  she  pub- 
lished and  edited,  with  rare  ability,  the  Missionary  Helper,  and  now  is  a  city 
missionary  in  Brooklyn. 

The  valuable  papers  from  Denmark  and  Italy  are  given  here  : 

DANISH   WOMAN'S   UNION    FOR   THE  PROTECTION  OF  YOUNG  GIRLS  AND  LONELY 

WOMEN. 

Mrs.  Ada  M.Frederiksen.  A  friend  of  Miss  Barner,  the  founder  and 
President  of  the  association,  said  to  her,  in  speaking  of  "  L'Union  des 
Amis  des  Jeunes  Filles,"  "  We  ought  to  have  such  an  association  here,"  and 
when  she  saw  how  deeply  interested  Miss  Barner  was,  she  added  :  "I'll 
make  you  a  present  of  the  idea."  Miss  Barner  took  this  word  as  a  gift  from 
God,  and  went  to  work  immediately  with  great  energy.  A  board  was  formed 
in  1880,  consisting  of  Mrs.  Julia  Halkjer,  General  Consul  and  Mrs.  Hansen, 
Rev.  C.  Sorensen,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Council  of  State,  L.  R.  Kofoed. 
The  idea  was  to  form  an  association  of  women  to  support  the  young  servant 


Organization.  201 

girls,  who,  on  arriving  in  a  large  town,  are  often  led  into  temptation  by  un- 
scrupulous women  and  men.  Lodgings  are  offered  to  them,  situations  prom- 
ised, with  high  salaries  and  very  little  work.  The  girl,  while  waiting  for 
these,  runs  short  of  money,  her  clothes  are  pawned,  and  she  is  almost  helpless. 

There  exist  in  Copenhagen  several  other  institutions,  the  Servant  Girls' 
Home,  the  Orphans'  Home,  etc.  ;  but,  although  these  institutions  try  to  fol- 
low, as  far  as  possible,  the  fate  of  the  girl  sent  out  from  their  schools,  it  is 
only  a  small  part  of  the  servant  girls  who  are  connected  with  them.  These 
ladies  meet  the  girls  at  the  steamboat-landing,  or  the  depot,  and  see  that  they 
have  a  respectable  home  to  go  to.  They  would  have  liked  to  rent  or  build 
a  home  ;  but,  not  being  organized,  they  did  the  best  they  could.  In  search- 
ing for  respectable  lodgings  for  the  girls  they  happened  to  find  a  home  where 
the  house-mother,  an  old  servant  girl,  who  herself  had  had  a  narrow  escape, 
was  delighted  to  help.  When  the  ladies  saw  how  sympathetic  she  was  to  the 
girls,  what  an  interest  she  took  in  the  work,  they  persuaded  her  husband  and 
herself  to  move  into  a  large  house,  and,  the  right  person  found,  the  home 
was  opened.  She  undertook  the  housekeeping  and  the  immediate  direc- 
tion. As  their  means  were  small  it  had  to  be  on  a  small  scale.  They  were 
at  first  only  able  to  help  ten,  or,  in  an  emergency,  sixteen,  girls.  The  ma- 
tron and  two  young  girls,  who  were  trained  in  housekeeping,  did  the  cook- 
ing, and  each  visitor  made  her  own  bed  and  helped  a  little  in  the  general 
work.  Any  respectable  woman,  who  needs  it,  can  get  room  and  board  there 
for  a  little  more  than  twelve  cents  a  day,  and  a  night's  lodging  and  breakfast 
for  five  cents. 

The  girls  who  are  educated  there  have  to  pay  $2.25  a  month.  None  but 
young  girls,  with  good  recommendations  from  their  school  or  their  clergy- 
man, are  accepted  as  pupils.  Besides  this,  the  Home  is  open  on  Sundays  and 
holidays  for  former  inmates  and  for  girls  introduced  by  them,  or  by  a  mem- 
ber of  the  branch  office  of  their  town.  At  their  evening  meetings  hymns 
are  sung,  the  Gospel  of  the  day  read,  sometimes  followed  by  a  Bible  expla- 
nation. They  have  tea  and  rolls  and  a  social  talk,  in  which  the  ladies  learn 
a  good  deal  of  their  young  friends. 

Let  me  give  you  a  few  instances  of  how  it  works.  Two  girls,  one  six- 
teen years  old,  the  other  a  little  older,  came  to  Copenhagen.  One  of 
them  had  the  address  of  the  Home  given  to  her  on  leaving  her  parish,  but, 
being  too  bashful  to  use  it,  she  followed  the  other  girl  to  a  house  recom- 
mended by  a  kind  gentleman  on  the  pier.  She  did  not  like  the  looks  of  the 
house  and  fled  to  the  bureau,  and  the  other  girl  was  sent  for  immediately. 
Another  girl  went  straight  to  the  Home,  on  finding  that  the  people,  to 
whom  she  had  engaged  herself,  had  opened  a  saloon.  In  a  third  case  a  girl 
came  late  to  the  Home.  Her  story  sounded  very  odd.  She  had  left  her  serv- 
ice that  evening  on  finding  that  her  master  had  rented  her  room,  and  she 
was  expected  to  sleep  in  the  family  bedroom.  Incredible  as  it  seems,  it  was 
14 


202  International  Council  of  Women. 

so.  In  another  place  a  very  young  girl  was  beaten,  sworn  at,  not  given  suf- 
ficient food.  Neighbors  gave  her  the  address  of  the  Home.  Why  did  she 
not  get  another  place  ?  She  was  not  permitted  to  leave,  having  engaged 
herself  for  six  months,  not  knowing  of  the  protection  given  to  her  by  law. 
Fearing  the  fine  she  might  incur,  she  did  not  dare  to  do  it. 

In  years  past,  as  a  rule,  servants  were  hired  for  a  year — later  for  six 
months — and  could  not  leave  at  the  expiration  of  that  time  without  having 
given  warning  when  half  of  the  term  had  passed.  I  remember  I  felt  very 
cheap  the  first  time  I — fifteen  years  ago — hired  a  girl  for  a  month.  My  only 
comfort  was  that  I  might  keep  her  ever  so  long,  in  spite  of  this  wickedness, 
if  I  liked  her.  Every  servant  has  a  book,  in  which  the  time  she  is  hired  for 
and  her  wages  are  stated.  This  book  is  kept  by  the  mistress,  who,  on  the 
girl  leaving,  has  to  state  how  long  the  girl  has  stayed  with  her.  In  towns  this 
book  has  to  be  taken  to  the  police  office  and  stamped  before  the  girl  can  get 
a  new  place  ;  in  the  country,  to  the  parish  officers  or  to  the  pastor.  Music 
teachers — young  girls  who  come  to  town  to  fit  themselves  for  better  places 
by  learning  fine  laundry  work,  ironing,  and  so  forth — women  who  come  to 
town  to  consult  doctors,  or  who  have  to  send  a  little  one  to  a  hospital,  come 
and  are  received.  Are  bad  women  received?  Not  knowingly ;  but  they 
are  kindly  told  where  to  go,  and  taken  there.  Sick  people,  too  sick  to  be 
received,  are  sent  to  the  hospital.  The  Home  has  now  seventy  branch 
offices — a  net-work  over  all  the  country.  The  ladies  of  these  offices  try  first 
to  have  the  girls  work  among  their  own  people.  If  the  girl  has  made  up  her 
mind  to  go,  they  give  her  the  address  of  the  Home,  or  of  the  office  in  the 
town  or  district  she  wants  to  go  to.  The  annual  membership  fee  is  small. 
I  hesitate  to  give  it  to  you  in  American  money.  It  is  only  a  little  more  than 
twenty-five  cents.  Many  give  more,  and  gifts  are  gratefully  received. 
Bakers,  butchers,  and  brewers  send  gifts  in  natura  ;  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines are  coming  in,  too.  The  branch  offices  remit  half  of  their  income  to 
the  headquarters  and  are  in  continual  correspondence  with  it.  Inquiries  come 
in  about  the  antecedents  of  a  girl ;  a  father  wants  to  learn  the  whereabouts  of 
his  daughter  ;  a  girl  wants  to  find  a  place,  and  so  forth.  For  the  rest,  they 
work  independently,  each  branch  doing  the  work  its  hand  findeth  to  do  in 
its  neighborhood,  the  headquarters  setting  an  excellent  example.  Meetings 
for  servant  girls  and  factory  girls  are  held  regularly.  The  girls  bring  their 
knitting,  sewing,  mending,  darning  stockings.  Some  do  it  very  nicely  \ 
others  have  to  be  helped.  Sewing-machines  are  on  hand.  The  ladies 
alternately  read  to  them  good  stories,  poems ;  a  hymn  is  sung.  Tea  is  served 
with  plenty  of  rolls.  As  a  rule,  the  girls  are  clean  and  neat  and  behave 
well.  The  last  meeting  of  the  season  is  made  more  of  a  treat.  These  meet- 
ings, in  some  of  which  instruction  in  the  three  R's  is  given  to  those  who 
wish  it,  are  held  in  school-rooms  and  other  public  places,  where  light  and 
heat  only  have  to  be  paid  for.     One  excellent  way  of  helping  overworked 


Organization.  203 

teachers,  sewing-girls,  servants,  and  convalescents  is  to  send  them  into  the 
country ;  and  the  Home  has  had  the  pleasure  of  sending  about  two  hundred 
out  this  last  year.  Railroads  and  steamers  have  given  part  of  the  tickets 
free,  and  Her  Royal  Highness  the  Crown  Princess  liberally  gave  the  rest  and 
paid  fares  to  the  places  not  reached  by  the  railroads. 

The  Central  Home  in  Copenhagen  has  a  Christmas  festival  that  gathers  all 
manner  of  lonely  women,  young  and  old,  around  its  tree,  and  entertains 
about  eighty  guests.  A  good  meal,  some  useful  gifts,  and  often  the  meal  for 
the  next  day  are  given  to  them  on  this  occasion  by  Her  Royal  Highness 
Crown  Princess  Louise.  The  address  of  the  Home  is  printed  on  a  slip  of 
paper,  and  the  ladies  in  the  provinces  try  to  have  it  pasted  in  "the  book"  of 
every  young  girl  who  leaves  their  district ;  and  here  I  come  to  the  practical 
object  of  my  report.  I  know  there  are  many  homes  for  self-supporting 
women  all  over  the  United  States,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that  there  are  many 
ladies  connected  with  such  homes  in  this  assembly.*  The  association  is  con- 
nected with  two  similar  associations  formed  in  Christiania  and  in  Bergen,  in 
Norway ;  and,  furthermore,  with  the  Union  des  Amis  des  Jeunes  Filles,  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  the  Travelers'  Aid  Society,  and  others. 
A  special  committee  is  formed,  the  ladies  of  which  meet  the  young  girls 
at  the  depot ;  take  them  to  hotels  or  to  the  Home  ;  see  them  off  if  they  are 
only  passing  through.  I  shall  be  glad  to  furnish  the  address  of  said  com- 
mittee to  any  one  who  would  like  to  have  it. 

Miss  Kirstine  Frederiksen,  President  of  the  Danish  Woman's 
Association,  sent  the  following  paper  : 

THE    DANISH   WOMAN'S   ASSOCIATION. 

This  organization  was  founded  in  1871.  Among  its  founders  were  Mr. 
Frederik  Bajer,  member  of  the  lower  house  of  the  Rigsdag,  and  his  wife, 
Mrs.  Mathilde  Bajer,  Mrs.  Rowsing,  Mrs.  Casse,  Mrs.  Christiani,  Miss  Caro- 
line Testmann,  and  Mr.  Klein,  architect;  of  these  Mrs.  Rowsing,  whose 
seventieth  birthday  was  celebrated  a  few  years  ago  in  quite  a  significant  manner, 
is  still  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors,  while  Miss  Testmann  is  at  the  head 
of  the  Business  College  for  Women,  which  the  association  has  established. 

Another  school,  the  only  one  of  its  kind,  a  Female  Institute  of  Industry 
and  Art,  in  which  instruction  is  given  in  drawing,  painting,  engraving,  etc.  3 
and  still  another,  a  Sunday-school  for  Laborers,  also  date  their  existence  to 
the  first  period  of  the  life  of  the  association.  But  otherwise  everything  went 
on  quietly,  in  an  unassuming,  retired  manner,  on  the  just  conviction  that 
the  first  thing  needed  was  education.     Its  practical  energy  the  association 

•Will  any  one  of  you  who  knows  of  such  homes  kindly  give  me  their  addresses,  or  send  them 
to  my  address,  357  East  Ohio  street,  Chicago,  that  we  could  have  them  printed  and  distributed 
among  the  girls  on  the  steamers  that  leave  Scandinavia  ?  Most  of  them  go  to  friends  or  places, 
but  to  many  of  them  it  would  be  a  great  help  to  know  of  a  reliable  home.  They  are  met  here 
by  the  same  dangers  as  in  Europe,  increased  tenfold  by  their  ignorance  of  the  language.  One 
of  my  girls  told  me  that  the  hardest  moment  in  her  life  was  when  she,  on  arriving  at  the  Chi- 
cago depot,  was  told,  "  Do  not  trust  anybody,  especially  not  your  own  countrymen." 


204  International  Council  of  Women. 

principally  spent  in  remedying  some  of  the  worst  evils  in  the  way  of  its 
progress.  It  supported,  with  money,  some  of  our  first  students  and  other 
young  women  who  strove  to  work  out  a  way  for  themselves. 

But,  in  1883,  a  newly-elected  board  of  directors  declared,  upon  entering 
office,  that  the  time  had  come  to  work  in  larger  circles  and  with  greater 
emphasis  for  the  ideas  whi  ch  made  up  the  platform  of  the  association  and 
bound  its  members  together.  An  active  agitation  was  set  on  foot  by  means 
of  lectures  deliver  ed  in  various  places  of  the  country,  pamphlets  on  the 
"  Position  of  Woman  in  Social  Life,"  the  "  Legal  Position  of  the  Natural 
Child  and  its  Mother,"  "  Woman's  Right  to  Self-support,  "  Health  and  the 
Female  Dress,"  etc.,  and  since  January  1,  1885,  an  independent  periodical, 
Kvinden  og  Samfundet- — "Woman  and  Society." 

This  agitation  found  a  peculiarly  well-prepared  field  to  operate  in  among 
that  party,  half  religious,  half  political,  but  wholly  national,  which  in  the 
third  decade  of  this  century  was  formed  by  the  poet- preacher,  N.  F.  S. 
Grundtvig,  one  of  the  master-spirits  of  the  century,  and  which  occupies  a 
prominent  position  in  the  Danish  civilization  of  to-day.  The  movement 
which  he  started  was  powerfully  borne  onward  by  the  endeavors  which  in  the 
fifth  decade  became  the  one  never-interrupted  exertion  of  the  Danish  peo- 
ple— to  defend  their  boundary,  to  protect  their  language,  to  vindicate  their 
spiritual  character.  It  immediately  stirred  the  educated  class,  and  soon  it 
penetrated  even  to  the  lowest  layers  of  the  people,  awakening  a  new  appre- 
ciation of  history  and  poesy  and  arousing  a  new  craving  for  further  develop- 
ment not  only  of  the  intelligence,  but  of  the  whole  moral  and  spiritual  life. 
It  became  the  basis  of  a  more  ideal  view  of  life  which  combines  the  common 
sense  and  the  courage  of  modern  civilization. 

Ably  represented  among  this  party  by  Mrs.  Astrid  Stampe  Feddersen, 
Miss  Ida  Falbe  Hansen,  and  Mr.  Svend  Hogsbro,  the  Danish  Woman's  Asso- 
ciation found  many  warm  friends  and  supporters  all  over  the  country.  At 
the  peasant's  hearth  Kvinden  og  Samfundet  is  read  and  pondered.  In 
the  villages,  when  on  Saturday  or  Sunday,  people  come  together  after  the 
work  of  the  week,  the  cause  is  eagerly  discussed.  From  the  most  distant  cor- 
ners of  the  country,  the  fifty  cents  which  it  costs  to  become  a  member,  are 
sent  to  the  association  "which  fights  for  woman's  rights."  Nevertheless, 
though  during  the  last  five  years  while  the  agitation  has  lasted,  the  member- 
ship of  the  association  has  doubled  eight  times,  it  still  counts  only  one  mem- 
ber for  each  six  hundred  full-grown  women  in  the  country.  Nor  is  there 
anything  so  very  great  to  be  said  about  the  influence  which  the  movement 
has  had  on  our  legislation.  In  1880  a  bill,  brought  before  the  lower  house 
by  Mr.  Bajer  and  supported  by  a  petition  which  was  circulated  by  the  Danish 
Woman's  Association  and  signed  by  2,350  ladies,  became  law,  and  married 
women  thereby  acquired  the  right  to  dispose  of  what  money  they  might  earn 
after  marriage,  but  the  right  to  dispose  of  means  they  might  be  possessed  of 
before  marriage  is  still  denied  them. 


Organization.  205 

Hitherto  the  Danish  Woman's  Association  has  considered  it  inexpedient 
to  incorporate  the  political  vote  with  its  platform,  but  it  has  worked  steadily 
and  with  all  its  might  to  procure  the  municipal  vote  for  women,  and  the 
present  government  does  not  seem  to  be  antagonistic  to  the  cause.  Twice,  a 
bill  for  that  purpose  has  been  brought  before  the  lower  house  and  success- 
fully carried,  but  in  the  upper  house,  composed  of  the  largest  landed  propri- 
etors and  the  heaviest  tax-payers,  it  found  only  coaxing  compliments  and  fine 
phrases,  but  no  real  support.  Several  other  reforms,  for  instance  in  the 
social  position  of  natural  children,  our  association  has  striven  to  push  partly 
by  discussion,  partly  by  petitions,  to  the  Rigsdag.  What  is  wanted  is  to 
procure  to  the  natural  child  admission  to  inheritance,  right  to  an  education 
proportionate  to  the  means  of  the  parents,  and  right  to  the  name  of  the 
father.  A  bill  of  some  such  contents  will  be  laid  before  the  Rigsdag  this 
session  and  is  expected  to  become  law. 

Among  the  discussions  raised  by  our  association  one  especially  attracted 
wide  and  deep  attention.  In  the  spring  of  1887  Miss  Elizabeth  Grundtvig, 
a  grand-daughter  of  the  above-mentioned  N.  F.  S.  Grundtvig,  delivered  a 
lecture  before  a  lady  audience  on  an  "  Equal  Standard  of  Chastity  for  Men 
and  Women."  By  analysis  of  various  examples  drawn  from  the  fiction  of 
the  day  she  proved  it  sound  and  just  that  the  moral  law  should  be  one  and 
the  same  for  men  and  women,  and  she  strongly  insisted  that  such  an 
equality  should  be  effected  by  men  adopting  the  standard  now  recognized 
only  by  women.  The  lecture  was  published,  and  immediately  both  the  lec- 
turer and  the  association  were  made  the  subject  of  very  vehement  attacks  in 
the  press.  They  were  not  left  without  defense,  however.  First  the  Danish 
poet,  C.  Hostrup,  came  to  their  aid ;  then  a  plea  was  made  in  their  behalf 
from  your  side  of  the  ocean,  by  the  Norwegian  preacher  Kvistofer  Janson  ; 
and  finally  the  Norwegian  poet,  Bjornstjaerne  Bjornson,  took  up  their  cause. 
He  wrote  several  articles  for  the  newspapers,  and,  on  the  invitation  of  the 
association,  he  came  to  Copenhagen  and  delivered  a  lecture  November  17, 
1887.  He  demonstrated  that  the  full  equality  of  standard  could  not  but 
add  to  the  health  and  happiness  of  the  race,  provided  it  was  brought  about 
by  strengthening  the  demands  on  man  and  not  by  weakening  those  on 
woman.  Of  course,  as  this  lecture  openly  treated  of  many  things  which  peo- 
ple in  general  are  used  only  to  whisper  about,  it  could  not  help  giving  offense 
to  many.  Nevertheless,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  past  and  his  overpowering 
eloquence  finally  carried  away  the  audience,  and  the  lecture  was  repeated 
with  unexampled  success  in  twenty-three  other  Danish  cities;  afterwards  also 
in  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Finland. 

At  many  points  the  association  has  been  equally  successful  in  its  practical 
undertakings.  In  1886  was  established  a  peculiar  kind  of  "Intelligence 
Office,"  in  which,  without  paying  any  fee,  women  could  obtain  all  needed 
information  concerning  their  legal,  social,  and  economic  relations;  in  1887 


206  International  Council  of  Women. 

an  employment  bureau  for  servant  girls ;  in  1888  a  similar  bureau  for  govern- 
esses, clerks,  etc.,  and  recently  have  been  appointed  a  committee  to  push 
the  introduction  into  the  primary  schools  for  girls  of  training  in  cooking, 
washing,  ironing,  and  other  domestic  work,  and  another  to  find  out  means 
of  opening  the  trades  to  women. 

Mrs.  Ada  M.  Frederiksen  sent  the  following  paper: 

WOMAN'S    EDUCATION    IN    DENMARK. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  leaders  of  the  Liberal  party  of  Denmark  in  1847, 
where  the  question  of  universal  suffrage  was  discussed,  it  was  said :  "But  the 
men  are  not  competent  to  use  this  right  to  vote;  how  can  they  be?"  "  Edu- 
cate them,"  was  one  answer.  "The  right  will  educate  them,"  another. 
"  Educate  the  mothers,"  a  third.  This  answer  was  passed  by  as  a  good  joke  ; 
the  men  were  too  busy  fighting  their  own  battles  then.  Still,  it  was  not  said 
in  vain,  for  a  bill  providing  a  state  examination  for  women  who  desired 
to  be  teachers  in  public  schools,  carried  by  Bishop  Monrad,  i860,  was  the 
result  of  it.  A  special  examination  for  women  who  desired  to  become  prin- 
cipals of  private  schools  was  in  existence,  but  only  a  few  took  advantage  of 
it.  This  new  examination  gave  to  women  a  permanent  position  in  the  pub- 
lic state  schools,  and  entitled  them  to  a  pension  after  certain  years  of  service. 

Mrs.  Astrid  Stampe  Feddersen  tells  us,  in  her  little  book  on  "  Woman's 
Rights,"  that,  while  the  government  yearly  spends  on  the  education  of  men 
2, 100,000  crowns,  it  only  spends  30,000  crowns  on  the  education  of  women* 
This  means,  for  every  crown  put  into  the  education  of  girls  seventy  are  given 
to  that  of  the  boys.  Theoretically  the  difference  is  not  quite  so  startling, 
for  we  are  in  a  state  of  transition  ;  the  expenses  of  the  university  are  not 
taken  into  account,  and  women  have  (1875)  Deen  admitted  to  the  University 
of  Copenhagen  and  taken  degrees  in  every  department  except  that  of  the- 
ology. 

As  more  women  take  advantage  of  this,  the  difference  in  the  outlay  will 
not  be  so  great.  In  the  high  schools  there  are  already  more  women  than 
men.  In  the  parish  schools  the  instruction  is  the  same  for  both  sexes.  The 
sons  and  daughters  of  peasants  and  workingmen  are  instructed  in  Bible  his- 
tory, catechism,  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  and  in  towns  the  common 
schools  for  boys  and  girls  teach,  besides  these  branches,  physics',  mathe- 
matics, and  German.  Education  is  compulsory.  A  small  progressive  fine 
has  to  be  paid  by  children  who  are  absent  except  in  cases  of  sickness,  when 
they  have  to  bring  a  doctor's  certificate.  As  the  fine  is  small,  parents, 
and  sometimes  employers,  prefer  to  pay  the  fine  for  the  children  that  work 
for  them.  In  Copenhagen  a  janitor  is  sent  for  children  who  do  not  come, 
and  if  a  child  plays  the  truant  against  the  will  of  the  parents,  it  is  placed  in 
the  internate,  a  kind  of  prison  in  the  school.     There   is  a  separate  school 

*A  Danish  crown  is  about  twenty-eight  cents. 


Organization.  207 

for  the  worst  kind  of  children.  These  have  to  stay  there  nights  too.  The 
law  provides  for  the  case  of  parents  not  being  able  to  pay  the  fine;  they  can 
be  sent  to  prison  instead,  but  the  law  is  rarely,  if  ever,  enforced,  and  then 
only  in  cases  of  flagrant  contumacy. 

There  is  an  inspector  for  the  common  schools  in  Copenhagen,  and  for 
those  in  towns.  In  the  country  this  work  is  done  by  the  school  committees, 
of  which  the  pastor  is  the  president.  The  teachers  are  superintended  by 
the  bishops  on  their  visitation.  To  understand  this  we  must  remember  that 
the  Lutheran  Church  is  the  state  church  of  Denmark.  The  middle  and  higher 
classes  in  the  country  employ  private  teachers,  and  then  the  pastor  has  to  be 
present  at  the  annual  examination.  In  the  lowest  and  in  the  highest  grades 
of  instruction  the  rights  are  equal  for  boys  and  girls,  but  when  we  come  to 
the  Latin  school — that  is,  the  preparatory  school  for  the  university — we  find 
that  these  are  only  for  boys.  If  a  girl  wants  to  go  there  she  has  to  have 
special  instruction,  or  apply  to  the  more  expensive  private  school. 

Among  these  schools  for  girls  that  of  Miss  Zahle,  founded  in  1851,  stands 
first,  and  has,  since  1883,  the  right  to  graduate  to  the  university.  This 
school  is  a  natural  development  of  her  girls'  school  and  high  school  for 
girls.  As  it  is  now,  with  its  different  departments,  led  by  almost  independ- 
ent principals,  under  the  supervision  of  Miss  Nathalie  Zahle,  it  forms  a  cen- 
ter of  education  for  Danish  women.  In  this  complex  of  buildings  are  found 
a  national  school,  a  school  of  modern  languages,  a  normal  institute,  a  cook- 
ing school,  courses  of  evening  lectures,  a  preparatory  school  for  the  univer- 
sity, and  a  gymnasium.  When  Miss  Zahle  some  day  retires  from  the  work, 
I  hope  the  time  will  have  come  for  the  government  to  buy  the  institution  and 
transform  it  into  a  public  Latin  school  for  girls. 

There  are  many  other  private  schools  for  girls,  some  of  them,  as  that  of 
the  sisters  Paludau-Muller,  built  on  purpose  for  the  work.  Several  private 
schools  for  girls  of  the  better  class,  where  housework,  laundry  work,  and 
sewing  are  taught,  besides  literature,  music,  languages,  are  found  outside  the 
capital,  as  at  Vaeldegaard,  Autvortskov,  and  other  places.  But  some  of 
the  best  work  for  the  education  of  the  young  peasants  and  peasant-girls 
is  done  in  the  high  schools  in  the  country.  The  grand  thought  of  Bishop 
Grundtvig,  to  train  the  peasants  who  have  no  literary  opportunities, 
through  oral  lectures,  was  first  carried  out  by  Mr.  Cold  with  great  success, 
and  later  by  Messrs.  Grove,  Schroeder,  La  Cour,  Boyesen,  and  others. 
Opportunities  for  the  development  of  women  are  increasing.  The  Danish 
Women's  Association  has  a  large  share  in  it,  but  we  are  a  conservative  people, 
and  it  is  so  hard  for  parents  to  believe  that  they  owe  an  education  to  their 
girls  as  well  as  to  their  boys;  but  they  will  soon  have  to  realize  it. 


208  International  Council  of  Women. 

The  paper  on  the  "Condition  of  Women  in  Italy"  is  from 
Madam  Fanny  Zampini  Salazaro : 

WOMAN'S  CONDITION  IN  ITALY. 

Not  to  know  at  large  of  things  remote 
From  use,  obscure  and  subtle,  but  know 
That  which  before  us  lies  in  daily  life, 
Is  the  prime  wisdom ;  what  is  more  is  fume, 
Or  emptiness,  or  fond  impertinence, 
And  renders  us  in  things  that  most  concern. 
Unpracticed,  unprepar'd  and  still  to  seek.— Milton. 

To  understand  woman's  position  in  Italy  properly,  American  women  and 
all  who  are  interested  in  this  question  must  take  into  account  the  substantial 
difference  of  social  life  in  Europe  and  America.  Notwithstanding  the 
splendor  of  her  history,  Europe  is  still  ruled  by  many  ancient  prejudices 
regarding  woman,  and  must  struggle  to  advance  her  civilization  and  triumph 
over  and  destroy  their  consequences.  Much  has  been  done  toward  this  end 
in  England,  Germany,  and  other  European  states.  Italy  is  still  young,  as 
she  only  gained  liberty  and  independence  in  i860,  whereas  in  America  the 
desire  for  liberty  was  the  motive  which  influenced  the  democracy  in  break- 
ing loose  from  the  mother  country. 

In  America  the  prejudices  and  traditions  of  old-established  systems  are 
absent,  and  to  act  rightly  and  justly  you  only  need  the  means  to  do  so. 
We,  in  Italy,  have  still  to  fight  against  the  established  pre-eminence  of  men 
and  the  bigotry  of  narrow-minded  clericals  who  dread  losing  their  power  over 
women;  for  women,  when  rationally  educated,  will  begin  to  think  for  them- 
selves instead  of  meekly  submitting  to  their  authority.  The  education  given 
in  convents  has  done  more  harm  to  Italian  women,  and  consequently  to  the 
country,  than  even  the  long  years  of  tyranny  which  oppressed  this  beautiful 
land  of  genius  and  poetry.  Nuns  who  had  no  experience  of  the  realities  of 
life,  who  lived  under  the  mystical  influence  of  a  fundamentally  great,  true, 
and  poetic  religion,  but  who,  through  ignorance  and  desire  for  power,  anni- 
hilated much  of  its  original  grandeur  and  purity,  who  led  such  a  secluded, 
unnatural  existence,  could  never  give  girls  a  sound,  rational  education  such 
as  would  fit  them  for  their  position  in  life.  Hence,  arose  a  miserable  state 
of  things  which,  injurious  to  women,  did  not  improve  society  and  the  nation 
in  general.  But  I  must  briefly  state  such  facts  as  will  give  a  clear  idea  of 
the  actual  condition  of  the  Italian  woman  both  in  the  family  and  in  society; 
for,  as  yet,  the  Constitution  allows  her  no  public  life. 

Primary  instruction,  which  was  made  compulsory  in  1877,  embraces  the 
first  rudiments  of  education  with  needle-work,  and  is  given  in  16,816  public 
girls'  schools  and  in  6,082  mixed  schools,  to  856,321  girls,  while  boys' 
schools  now  number  19,492  and  are  attended  by  1,017,402  pupils.  The 
normal  course  for  training  female  teachers  for  the  primary  schools  comprises 
the  study  of  pedagogy,  Italian  language  and  literature,  arithmetic,  metric 
system,  elements  of  geography,  history  and  geography  of  Italy,    physical 


Organization.  209 

geography,  elements  of  natural  sciences,  of  domestic  economy,  agriculture, 
the  rights  and  duties  of  citizens,  calligraphy,  rudiments  of  drawing,  gym- 
nastics, singing,  needle-work,  and  French.  There  are  83  such  schools  in 
Italy,  attended  by  3,316  pupils. 

In  the  few  "  magistral"  schools  where  normal  female  teachers  are  trained, 
the  course  is  the  same  as  the  above,  only  more  advanced.  There  are  two 
superior  girls'  schools,  one  in  Rome  and  one  in  Florence,  which  were  estab- 
lished with  the  object  of  giving  a  still  higher  education  by  adding  to  the 
curriculum  of  the  "  magistral  "  schools,  English  and  German,  logic  and 
psychology.  One  hundred  and  sixty-eight  pupils  have  availed  themselves  of 
these  advantages.  That  in  Florence  is  said  to  be  better  managed  than  the 
one  in  Rome,  which  falls  far  short  of  the  ideal  of  its  foundress,  Erminia  Fua 
Fusinato,  whose  early  death  deprived  it  of  her  fostering  care  and  organiza- 
tion. In  connection  with  this  superior  school  there  is  a  society  for  promoting 
the  scientific,  literary,  and  moral  culture  of  women,  of  which  our  gracious 
Queen  is  honorary  president,  the  superindent  of  the  school  is  acting  president, 
and  the  vice-president  is  Countess  Hugo  Balzani,  one  of  the  most  highly 
cultivated  English  women  here.  Co-operating  with  them  is  a  committee  of 
ladies  who  appoint  fit  and  proper  persons  to  lecture  to  the  pupils  and  mem- 
bers of  the  society  on  various  subjects,  which  are  seldom  either  well  chosen 
or  interesting. 

No  lady  has  yet  spoken  there,  and  when  Countess  Balzani  suggested  such 
an  innovation,  several  members  of  the  committee  openly  expressed  their 
astonishment  at  what  they  evidently  considered  an  almost  scandalous  depart- 
ure. However,  in  deference  to  her  opinion,  lectures  were  permitted  to  be 
delivered  privately,  by  women,  in  the  rooms  of  the  superior  schools,  so  as 
not  to  interfere  with  the  official  biweekly  professorial  lectures.  There  are 
several  colleges  of  music,  with  some  300  pupils  who  receive  a  general  as  well 
as  a  musical  education  ;  also  sixteen  technical  schools,  where  girls  receive 
practical  training  in  needle-work  of  all  kinds,  from  mending  to  dressmaking 
and  lace-work  ;  in  artificial  flower-making,  and  other  kindred  industries. 
These  technical  schools  are  under  the  control  of  the  Minister  of  Agriculture, 
Industry,  and  Commerce,  and  now  train  about  4,046  girls.  Their  influence 
might  be  much  extended  if,  besides  technical  studies,  something  were  done 
to  raise  the  thoughts  and  foster  the  higher  moral  qualities  of  the  girls,  who 
never  get  a  chance  of  hearing  a  lecture  or  of  reading  any  good  book  likely 
to  awaken  their  better  feelings. 

Private  day  and  boarding  schools  abound — 4,090  of  the  former  and  848 
of  the  latter,  with  105,662  and  52,925  scholars,  respectively.  Their  direc- 
tion, often  lamentably  deficient,  is  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  nuns  ;  those  under 
the  "  Filles  de  Charite  "  being  the  best.  Since  1878  women  have  been 
allowed  to  follow  the  courses  at  boy's  gymnasia,  "  lycees  "  and  technical 
schools,  as  also  at  all  the  universities ;  but  this  concession,  besides  giving  rise 
to  many  unkind  observations  about  the  girls  who  profited  by  it,  raised  a 


210  International  Council  of  Women. 

question  as  to  the  practical  advantages  to  be  derived  therefrom,  when  it  was 
still  uncertain  whether  the  learned  professions,  for  which  they  had  now  quali- 
fied themselves,  would  be  thrown  open  to  them. 

Women  were  allowed  to  graduate  in  medicine,  and  we  now  have  two  lady- 
practitioners.  One  is  in  Rome  and  has  been  appointed  court  physician  by 
our  Queen  ;  but,  though  highly  respected,  I  can  not  say  that  her  professional 
career  has  proved  as  successful  as  could  be  wished.  Tacit  opposition  and 
lack  of  confidence  have  been  her  chief  difficulties,  though  her  lot  has  been 
more  fortunate  than  that  of  a  Turinese  lady  who,  though  qualified  as  a  law- 
yer, had  to  renounce  her  chosen  profession  owing  to  the  law  courts  being 
closed  to  her.  Our  men  are  not  yet  sufficiently  free  from  prejudices  to 
openly  uphold  the  principle  of  even-handed  justice  to  both  sexes,  and  our 
women  are  also  to  blame  for  not  using  their  home  influence  to  urge  men  to 
greater  liberality  of  opinion. 

If  a  woman  is  poor  and  has  to  support  herself,  she  has  little  choice  of 
occupation.  As  a  teacher,  she  is  scantily  paid  and  hard  worked,  her  salary 
being  scarcely  sufficient  to  provide  her  with  food.  She  is  often  exposed  to 
worse  miseries.  If  young  and  nice  looking,  her  superiors,  regardless  of 
her  forlorn  position,  make  use  of  it  to  indulge  their  vilest  passions,  and, 
meeting  with  resistance,  may  dismiss  her  on  false  pretenses.  Several  girls 
have,  under  these  circumstances,  chosen  death  rather  than  dishonor — one, 

Itala ,  aroused  universal  sympathy  for  her,  and  indignation  at  the 

conduct  of  her  infamous  seducer,  who  was  severely  punished.  Such  instances 
are  only  signs  of  the  corrupt  state  of  things ;  for  few,  very  few,  are  morally 
strong  enough  to  resist  the  temptation  of  securing  advancement  by  such  foul 
paths,  and  to  struggle  on  in  poverty  and  loneliness.  Yet  this  is  almost  the 
only  opening  for  girls  of  the  middle  class. 

According  to  the  latest  returns,  there  are  4,488  government  teachers  and 
811  private  ones,  besides  629  female  teachers  in  the  night  schools  for  adults, 
5,957  in  the  adult  schools  open  on  Sundays.  Normal  and  ''magistral" 
teachers  number  4,499.  Government  nominates  2  lady  superintendents 
of  the  state  boarding-schools  and  8  inspectresses.  The  latter  have  to  report 
on  the  condition  of  public  and  private  schools  throughout  the  kingdom. 
The  way  in  which  these  duties  are  often  performed  is  neither  creditable  to 
the  government  department  of  public  instruction  nor  to  its  nominees.  One 
of  them,  however,  Felicita  Morandi,  Inspectress  at  Milan,  is  a  shining 
example  of  a  noble,  highly-cultivated  woman.  Her  influence  is  dreaded  by 
the  clerical  party,  who  do  all  they  can  to  hinder  her  reforms  and  prevent 
the  circulation  of  her  little  book,  "In  Famiglia,"  eminently  adapted  for 
girls'  reading.  Literary  employment  is  scantily  paid  and  precarious,  unless 
such  success  can  be  insured  as  has  rewarded  the  Marchesa  Colombi,  Ida 
Baccini,  Matilde  Serao  (editress  of  a  political  paper),  Grazia  Pierantoni, 
Mancini,  and  Neera  ;  even  they  could  not  have  supported  themselves  entirely 
by  their  pen. 


Organization.  ^211 

As  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  any  artistic  training,  women  are  excluded 
from  all  artistic  and  high  decorative  work.  To  supply  this  want  I  submitted  a 
scheme  for  a  girls'  school  of  drawing  and  industrial  art  to  our  "  Commissione 
Centrale  per  l'lnsegnamento  Artistico."  It  met  with  high  approval  and 
praise,  but  neither  the  means  nor  the  will  to  carry  it  out  were  forthcoming, 
and  it  remains  a  scheme.  In  Turin,  Milan,  and  Genoa,  some  few  female  art- 
workers  are  employed  in  painting  on  china,  silk,  and  vellum.  In  Venice, 
the  school  and  factory  for  lace,  reproducing  the  ancient  designs,  has  given  a 
certain  impetus  to  this  branch  of  female  labor,  due  to  Countess  Adriana  Zon 
Marcello,  lady  in  waiting  to  the  Queen,  who  has  been  assisted  by  the  local 
member  of  Parliament,  Paulo  Fambri. 

Among  the  lower  classes,  women  share  the  labors  of  the  sterner  sex,  except 
in  one  or  two  handicrafts,  where  their  lack  of  muscular  strength  incapaci- 
tates them.  As  weavers,  spinners,  field  laborers  (I  had  almost  said  beasts  of 
burden)  we  find  them  toiling  for  a  mere  pittance ;  often  for  twelve  hours  of 
work  their  highest  pay  is  two  francs  25  centimes  (45  cents),  and  a  so-called 
short  day  of  ten  hours  will  sometimes  only  yield  60  centimes  (12  cents). 
That  there  exists  an  earnest  desire  among  Italian  women  to  earn  their  own 
livelihood  is  proved  by  there  being  1,830,482  women  workers,  161,202  of 
whom  are,  alas!  under  fifteen  years  of  age.  Between  schoolmistresses  and 
laborers  there  is  an  intermediate  class  comprising  about  11,035  midwives,  23 
blood-letters,  9  dentists,  487  female  post-officers,  and  a  few  telephone  clerks  ; 
quite  lately  a  few  female  booking-clerks  and  chemists'  assistants  have  been 
appointed  in  rural  districts. 

Ladies  in  reduced  circumstances  think  it  no  shame  to  beg  from  friends  and 
acquaintances.  To  work  would  be  neither  genteel  nor  honorable  !  Dress- 
makers, milliners,  and  domestic  servants  earn  much  more  than  teachers  and 
have  an  easier  life ;  but  the  latter  are  considered  of  higher  social  rank.  So 
the  daughter  of  the  humble  worker,  who  might  profitably  follow  in  her 
mother's  footsteps,  prefers  to  indulge  her  ambitious  pride  by  entering  the 
"starvation  army"  of  female  teachers,  where  she  can  gain  a  possible  maxi- 
mum of  about  1,000  francs,  or  more  likely  a  minimum  of  500  francs  a  year — 
two  francs  (forty  cents)  per  day  for  food,  clothing,  and  all  the  necessaries  of 
life !  It  follows  as  a  natural  consequence  that  marriage  is  held  to  be  the  best 
solution  of  the  problem,  and  girls  use  all  the  fascinations  of  youth,  beauty, 
dress,  and  coquetry  to  catch  a  husband  rather  than  be  compelled  to  face 
single  life.  Such  unions  seldom  realize  the  high  ideal  of  marriage,  with  its 
home  influences  training  the  inmates  of  the  household  to  be  true  men  and 
women,  fit  to  wage  the  battle  of  life  with  honor  and  single-mindedness  in 
that  state  to  which  God  may  call  them. 

Having  thus  sketched  the  social  standing  of  Italian  women,  I  must  dwell 
for  a  few  minutes  on  their  position  in  the  eye  of  the  law  when  married. 
Under  the  civil  code  woman  has  no  existence  apart  from  her  husband.     He 


212  International  Council  of  Women. 

is  her  lord  and  master  in  all  things,  and,  as  she  is  supposed  to  owe  all  to  him, 
he  has  the  complete  control  of  even  her  private  fortune,  should  she  have  any. 
Bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  love  matches  are  rare,  and  expediency  the  usual 
motive  for  entering  the  married  state.  The  consequences  are  often  life-long 
misery  and  unhappiness — the  wife  striving  to  keep  up  appearances,  yet  going 
her  own  way,  the  husband  equally  independent  but  less  careful  of  his  con- 
duct, for  should  he  be  unfaithful  his  punishment  is  light,  whereas  the  wife's 
desertion  of  the  paths  of  honor  can  be  visited,  should  her  husband  choose 
to  expose  her  guilt,  with  all  the  terrors  of  the  law.  In  other  lands  the  usual 
resource  in  such  cases  would  be  a  divorce,  which,  however,  does  not  yet 
exist  with  us  (although  warmly  advocated  by  our  past  and  present  ministers 
of  justice,  Tommaso  Villa  and  Guiseppe  Zanardelli  and  other  influential 
politicians),  the  only  approach  to  it  being  a  "  legal  separation." 

The  grounds  on  which  even  this  is  granted  tend  to  shackle  the  woman. 
Should  she  apply  for  it  she  must  prove  ill-treatment  on  her  husband's  part, 
or  open  cohabitation  with  another  woman.  If  her  suit  is  granted,  the  man 
must  restore  to  her  hands  the  control  over  any  private  fortune  which  she  had 
previous  to  her  marriage.  Should  there  be  no  such  means  of  subsistence  he 
is  bound  to  give  her  an  allowance  proportionate  to  his  income  ;  the  children 
of  their  union,  if  there  be  any,  are  still  under  their  mutual  control;  she 
must  bear  his  name  and  remain  his  wife.  On  the  other  hand,  should  the 
appeal  for  separation  be  mutual,  or  proceed  from  the  man,  no  restitution  of 
her  dower  is  enforced,  and  her  husband  is  only  bound  to  contribute  suffi- 
cient for  her  bare  support.  Many  women,  rather  than  expose  themselves  to 
the  obloquy  following  such  a  step,  close  their  eyes  and  live  their  lives 
apart  from,  yet  under  the  roof  of,  the  man  whom  they  promised  to  love, 
honor,  and  obey,  unable  to  taste  the  sweets  of  that  promise  and  bound  to 
the  harsh  obedience.  Is  it  likely  that  the  offspring  of  such  unhappy  unions 
can  be  trained  in  purity  and  reverence  for  the  ties  of  a  home  life  which  they 
never  knew?  Under  the  "penal  code,"  if  a  woman  be  guilty  of  crime  her 
husband  may,  should  he  so  please,  take  the  law  into  his  own  hands  and  mur- 
der her  or  have  her  imprisoned  for  any  period  not  exceeding  two  years  ;  but 
she  has  no  such  revenge  granted  her,  "legal  separation"  is  again  the  only 
resource,  fraught  as  ever  with  social  ostracism  to  the  woman  and  comparative 
impunity  to  man. 

Over  that  darkest  social  question  of  legal  prostitution  I  would  willingly 
draw  a  veil,  but  I  can  not  give  an  adequate  view  of  woman's  condition  with- 
out alluding  to  this  plague  spot.  The  wretched  women  included  in  the 
term  prostitutes,  are  divided  into  two  classes — the  free  and  the  licensed. 
The  former  ply  their  degrading  calling  on  their  own  terms  ;  the  latter  are 
obliged  to  receive  the  first  comer  at  a  fixed  price,  on  which  the  government 
levies  a  tax  established  by  law.  They  are  compelled  meekly  to  submit  to  a 
medical  examination,  and,  if  necessary,  are  sent  into  a  hospital,  where  they 


Organization.  213 

are  compelled  to  live  with  others  of  their  class,  and  where,  alas !  they  can 
meet  with  no  ladies,  as  in  America  and  England,  to  offer  them  a  word  of 
sympathy  or  comfort  and  try  to  reclaim  them  from  their  sinful  life.  Oh, 
that  we  had  now  in  Italy  a  woman  with  the  genius  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe, 
to  describe  vividly  the  horrors  of  this  slavery  of  women.  Then,  perhaps,  the 
hearts  of  our  statesmen  might  be  touched,  and  the  shameful  laws  for  legal- 
izing prostitution  be  blotted  from  the  statute-book  of  a  free  and  civilized 
people.  The  powers  of  the  police  are  excessive,  and  open  the  door  to  tyr- 
annous abuses.  We  have  now  in  Italy  1,119  houses  of  ill-fame,  with  6,643 
inmates,  besides  3,779  private  lodgings.  In  one  year  the  police  inscribed 
in  their  infamous  registers  3,850  unfortunate  women,  in  addition  to  3,779 
who  ply  their  trade  privately.  Of  the  former,  1,206  were  minors.  The 
government  receives  from  the  tax  on  prostitution  603,005  francs  per  annum, 
while  the  cost  of  the  police  and  the  hospitals  for  the  state  regulations  of  pros- 
titution is  about  1,275,000  francs  a  year. 

But  I  am  happy  to  hear  that  the  Professors  Albaneseand  Tommasi  Crudeli 
have  been  charged  by  our  present  President  of  the  Council  of  Ministers, 
Signor  Crispi,  with  the  task  of  drawing  up  new  rules  for  the  sanitary  law 
proposed  by  the  late  lamented  Bertani,  who  declared  in  Parliament  that  he 
wished  to  abolish  all  this  shame.  Let  us  sincerely  hope  that  the  new  law 
will  be  approved  and  an  end  put  to  this  miserable  state  of  things,  and  that 
a  new  era  of  liberty  and  morality  may  arise  in  favor  of  so  many  unfortunate, 
sinful  women  who,  if  charitably  helped  in  the  path  of  reform,  may  be  led  to 
abandon  their  vicious  course  and  lead  a  virtuous  and  honest  life. 

I  have  now,  I  think,  given  a  fair,  general  idea  of  the  difficulties  Italian 
women  have  to  contend  against  when  struggling  to  prove  themselves  fit  to  be 
men's  equals  in  the  ordinary  avocations  of  life.  And,  in  conclusion,  I  must 
briefly  allude  to  some  of  the  large-minded  men  whose  labors  have  been 
devoted  to  the  removal  of  the  existing  inequalities  of  legislation.  Mancini, 
the  two  De  Forestas,  Morelli,  Bonghi,  Bertani,  De  Sanctis,  Coppino, 
Grimaldi,  Depretis,  Gabba,  Lussana,  and  Moleschott  have  all  in  their  day 
brought  powerful  influence  and  deep  thought  to  our  assistance,  and  it  is  to 
them  that  we  owe  the  small  advantages  we  are  now  at  last  enjoying.  The 
work  of  most  of  them,  however,  lay  principally  in  the  halls  of  the  Houses 
of  Parliament.  The  outer  public  knew  and  cared  little  for  a  subject  which 
they  neither  understood  nor  feared,  and  it  was  reserved  for  a  promising  young 
jurist,  Count  Massimo  Collalto,  to  bring  the  question  of  women's  rights 
before  a  mixed  audience  in  Rome  on  February  7,  1886.  His  arguments, 
though  bold  and  new  to  many  of  his  hearers,  met  with  the  approval  of  the 
public  press  and  of  the  more  enlightened  portion  of  Roman  society. 
One  of  the  great  hindrances  to  the  spread  of  healthier  ideas  on  the  sub- 
ject has  been  the  absence  of  any  journal  for  women's  special  reading,  from 
whose  pages  they  could  learn  what  their  sisters  were  doing  in  foreign  lands. 


214  International  Council  of  Women. 

Two  attempts  were  made  to  supply  this  want  in  the  issue  of  La  Donna 
by  Madame  G.  A.  Baccari,  at  Bologna,  and  La  Cornelia  published  at 
Florence,  by  Aurelia  Folliero  de  Luna.  Both  were  short-lived  ;  the  former 
owing  to  its  open  hostility  to  religion  and  advocacy  of  free  thinking,  and 
the  latter  to  its  extreme  views  on  the  whole  question  of  woman's  rights. 
One  great  defect  was  common  to  both,  they  pre-supposed  an  enlightened 
band  of  readers,  fully  alive  to  their  own  unsatisfactory  condition  of  educa- 
tion and  culture;  they  did  not  seek  to  point  out  a  remedy,  so,  naturally,  they 
effected  little  towards  the  realization  of  their  object.  Sanguine  of  a  happier 
result,  I  published  in  January,  1887,  the  first  number  of  the  Rassegna 
degli  Lnteressi  Fentminili,  a  copy  of  which  has  been  already  submitted  to 
your  International  Council  of  Women.  In  its  monthly  issues  I  have  striven 
to  show,  not  only  where  the  hardships  of  our  condition  lie,  but  to  suggest 
alleviations,  to  interest  my  countrywomen  in  general  topics,  and  bring  them 
into  contact  with  workers  and  thinkers  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 
My  efforts  have  met  with  moderate  success,  and  the  extended  circulation  of 
my  magazine,  now  in  the  hands  of  one  of  our  influential  publishers,  has 
aroused  the  bitter  ire  of  the  ultra-clerical  party.  At  first,  private  observa- 
tions reached  my  ears — those  I  could  ignore,  but  when  an  open  attack  is 
made  on  my  work  in  the  chief  organ  of  the  Vatican,  I  can  no  longer  keep 
silence,  and  must  in  the  April  number  refute  the  assertion,  that  the  patron- 
age and  encouragement  always  extended  to  me  by  our  gracious  Queen  is 
purely  a  child  of  my  imagination,  by  publishing  an  answer  which  will  appear 
with  the  Queen's  openly  declared  approval. 

The  papacy  is  in  the  throes  of  a  bitter  struggle  for  the  recovery  of  tem- 
poral power,  forever  lost  to  it  in  1870.  Its  influence  over  men  is  fast  waning, 
but,  by  means  of  the  confessional  and  the  pulpit,  its  ministers  have  hitherto 
kept  a  firm  hold  on  the  women  of  their  congregations,  whose  ignorance  and 
superstition  they  foster.  Now  that  a  more  successful  attempt  is  being  made 
to  shake  this  power  by  extended  education,  all  the  weapons  of  personal  bit- 
terness and  calumny  are  pressed  into  service  by  the  large  section  of  narrow- 
minded  clericals.  Its  nobler  intellects  stand  aside  powerless  to  check  the 
stream,  yet  grieved  at  a  spirit  which  can  not  separate  the  true  interests  of 
religion  from  political  questions.  However,  I  hope  that  with  time  and  per. 
severing  struggles  we  may  obtain  all  the  reasonable  reforms  in  favor  of  the 
Italian  woman,  who  has  a  right  to  reach  the  high  intellectual  and  moral  level 
which  her  sisters  have  reached  in  other  nations.  For  much  of  the  matter 
of  this  sketch  I  must  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  my  zealous  and  constant 
collaborateur,  Count  Massimo  Collalto. 

Now  I  send,  in  the  name  of  all  Italian  women,  a  sincere  and  warm  greet- 
ing to  the  ladies  assembled  in  the  International  Council  of  Women,  in 
whose  deliberations  I  am  sorry  not  to  have  been  able  to  join  personally. 


Organization.  215 

Mrs.  Gage.  I  now  present  to  you  Mrs.  M.  Louise  Thomas,  of  New  York, 
President  of  Sorosis. 

Mrs.  Thomas.  Gentlemen  and  ladies  :  I  am  asked  to  speak  to  you  on  the 
subject  of  organization  as  applied  to  women's  clubs.  While  we  claim  that 
Sorosis,  the  women's  club  of  New  York,  is  in  a  sense  the  oldest  in  the 
world,  doubtless  the  idea  existed  long  before.  There  were  meetings  of 
women  many  years  before  Sorosis  was  dreamed  of.  We  had  the  Blue  Stock- 
ing Club  of  Great  Britain,  and  of  those  nearer  at  hand,  in  1842,  Margaret 
Fuller,  who  resided  at  that  time  in  New  York,  and  was  on  the  editorial  staff 
of  the  Tribune,  gathered  around  her  a  group  of  women  to  listen  to  her 
remarkable  conversations ;  however,  there  was  no  permanent  organization 
among  them,  and  they  fell  apart  when  Margaret  left  New  York.  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  forming  a  club  in  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  in  1863,  which  we 
called  "Evenings  Together."  In  all  of  these  clubs,  however,  gentlemen 
were  admitted  as  participants. 

Sorosis  was  organized  just  twenty  years  ago ;  close  to  her  came  the  New 
England  Woman's  Club,  then  many  others  sprung  up  over  the  country  and 
they  still  are  growing  faster  and  faster.  Sorosis  is  strictly  a  woman's  club  ; 
that  is,  men  are  not  admitted  to  any  of  its  regular  meetings,  either  social 
or  business.  It  is  not  recognized  in  any  by-law,  but  there  is  one  day  of  the 
year  that  is  Gentlemen's  Day,  when  we  invite  them  to  dine  with  us,  but 
upon  no  other  occasion  can  any  gentlemen  be  admitted  to  the  meetings. 
I  am  not  presenting  these  facts  as  being  the  best  methods,  but  merely  as 
facts.  It  is  composed  of  literary  and  representative  women,  who  meet  for 
the  interchange  of  thought ;  to  be  a  help  to  each  other,  and  to  have  a  good 
time.     We  are  working  women  in  the  best  sense. 

The  word  Sorosis  is  purely  Greek  and  signifies  "  an  aggregation."  The 
strictest  translation  would  be  a  "cumulous."  For  example,  this  body 
before  you  is  Sorosis  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  an  aggregation 
of  thought  and  of  interests  and  for  different  purposes.  Botanically,  we  say 
it  represents  many  fruits  in  one,  as  the  breadfruit  or  the  pineapple.  Sorosis  >" 
is  not — I  owe  it  to  my  constituents  to  say  this — it  is  not  a  woman's  suffrage  . 
association ;  it  is  rather  conservative.  There  are  three  subjects  that  are 
never  talked  upon  in  the  club — religion,  politics,  and  woman's  suffrage; 
not  that  there  are  not  any  women  in  the  club  who  are  deeply  interested  in 
all  these  questions,  but  because  it  is  feared  they  might  cause  dissension. 
That  many  women  in  the  club  do  feel  a  great  sympathy  in  woman's  suffrage 
is  evident  from  the  fact  that  three  of  its  original  incorporators  are  now 
present  with  us,  with  thirty-two  of  the  members.  Sorosis  is  alive  to  the 
influence  of  the  advanced  thought  of  the  age ;  it  realizes,  too,  the  changes 
that  have  come  within  twenty  years ;  that  the  thought  which  in  the  beginning 
was  a  huge  joke,  that  women  should  feel  themselves  competent  to  draw  apart 
and  sit  with   each  other  for  mutual    sympathy   and  the  expression  of  their 


216  International  Council  of  Women. 

thoughts  and  feelings,  is  now  not  merely  tolerated  in  the  community,  but  has 
won  recognition  and  respect. 

I  am  sure  you  have  been  impressed,  as  I  have  been,  with  the  different  sub- 
jects presented,  the  experiences  given  to  us,  and  I  think  every  man  and 
woman  must  have  felt  in  listening  to  these  reports  a  degree  of  concern  that 
these  noble  women  should  have  been  giving  their  best  work  and  that  in  every 
report  there  seems  to  be  some  lost  chord.  There  always  seems  to  be  a  point 
to  my  mind  where  there  is  a  waste  of  power,  and  I  ask  myself,  Why  is  it  that 
women  who  see  so  clearly  the  needs  of  the  race ;  why  is  it  that  all  this 
enthusiasm  and  earnestness  should  not  meet  recognition  ?  In  the  mining 
centers  of  our  country  in  Pennsylvania,  locomotives  of  unusual  size  and 
power  are  used  to  draw  the  heavy  loads  of  coal  over  the  steep  mountain 
grades.  I  have  seen  one  of  these  huge  engines,  weighing  from  50  to  60  tons, 
standing  cold  and  still  upon  the  track  ;  I  have  seen  it  moved  by  a  single 
hand,  holding  a  small  bar  of  iron  applied  as  a  lever  under  one  of  the  wheels, 
a  movement  which,  if  continued,  and  which,  if  assisted  by  the  breathing 
steam  and  guided  by  the. intelligent  hand  of  the  engineer,  would  speedily 
carry  its  precious  weight  of  freight  out  into  the  world  for  the  comfort  of  the 
people. 

Gentlemen  and  ladies,  do  we  not  all  see  the  engine  standing  upon  the 
track?  Do  not  we  all  wonder  why  the  lever  is  held  from  the  hand  of  woman  ? 
Why  the  country  and  the  world  are  still  waiting?  What  is  it  that  has  brought 
these  women  out  this  week  to  tell  us  of  their  marvelous  works  ?  I  have  a 
list  here  of  some  of  the  purposes  of  which  these  women  have  come  to  tell  us. 
First  we  have  religion.  We  have  those  who  were  a  few  years  ago  the  closest 
kind  of  sectarians  bringing  to  us  the  needs  of  the  people  from  a  religious 
point  of  view.  We  have  education,  we  have  young  women  telling  us  the 
trouble  they  had  to  enter  colleges,  and  their  striving  now  to  make  the  best 
of  their  opportunities,  and  we  have  philanthropies  in  all  their  phases  ;  we 
have  temperance,  we  have  the  industries,  we  have  the  professions,  we  have 
organizations  and  the  power  they  give  ;  we  have  the  legal,  the  social,  and 
political  conditions.  All  these  are  laid  before  you  by  single  voices,  and  yet 
each  woman  here  represents  a  constituency  ranging  from  half  a  million 
down  to  a  few  hundred  or  less.  Now,  friends,  these  works  are  all  stand- 
ing-^they  are  waiting  for  the  little  lever  that  starts  the  big  engine. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  letter  written  by  the  Crown  Princess  of  Denmark. 
It  is  written  from  the  palace  in  her  own  hand  and  bears  the  royal  signet 
and  is  addressed  to  Mrs.  Cramer,  sister  of  General  Grant. 

Amalieborg  Palace,  January  23,  1888. 
There  is  one  thing  to  which  I  should  so  much  like  to  draw  your  attention ,  though 
I  have  not  the  slighest  idea  if  you  yourself,  or  through  your  friends,  might  help  a 
little.  The  subject  will  have  your  approbation  I  know,  and,  perhaps,  if  there  was 
a  chance,  you  would  not  mind  some  possible  trouble,  having  kept  such  a  faithful 
remembrance  of  your  stay  and  friends  in  Denmark. 


Organization,  217 

You  know,  I  am  sure,  that  there  is  to  be  a  Congress  at  "Washington  (I  believe  in 
March)  for  women  and  their  interests.  There  will  be  a  delegate  there,  Mrs.  Fred- 
eriksen,  a  Danish  lady,  who  resides  in  Chicago.  She  is  going  to  represent  the  Chris- 
tian Defense  Society,  the  same  as  "  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,"  or  the 
friend  of  young  girls  and  the  traveler's  aid,  with  which  associations  it  is  correspond- 
ing, and,  more  or  less,  a  branch  of  them — quite  by  itself,  not  under  them.  .  I  have 
heard  that  in  Sweden  and  Norway  they  are  thinking  of  trying  to  get  a  home,  a  kind 
of  home-mission  house  for  girls  or  women.  I  think  this  idea  good,  and  I  know  it  is 
desired  very  much,  so  beg  to  get  one  for  Danish  ones,  too,  either  in  connection 
with  the  others,  only  that  there  should  be  a  section  or  a  hall  or  beds  especially  for 
them,  if  possible,  which,  perhaps,  might  prove  to  be  cheaper  than  erecting  one  for 
Danes  alone.  But  if  it  can  not  be  sure  otherwise  than  alone,  there  might  be  but  a. 
few  rooms,  with  a  kitchen  and  a  Danish  lady  or  woman  at  the  head  of  it.  In  all 
this,  Mrs.  Frederiksen  should  try  to  awaken  an  interest. 

,«  From  here  we  can  not  say  how  or  if.  That  some  one  can  do  who  is  more  initiated 
into  American  life  and  customs.  All  I  should  like  to  ask  now  is,  that  you  kindly 
would  help  or  counsel  and  interest  others.  Perhaps  you  had  settled  to  be  present 
or  that  you  know  some  friends  going  to  partake  in  it.  I  am  afraid  that  I  ask  very 
much,  too  much  of  you.  Then,  pardon  me,  dear  Mrs.  Cramer,  for  old  friendship's 
sake.  (Signed)  Louise. 

Mrs.  Gage.  May  I  introduce  to  you  Mrs.  Jennie  C.  Croly,  better  known 
as  "Jennie  June,"  who  for  twenty-seven  years  was  the  editor  of  Madame 
Demoresf s  Monthly? 

women's  clubs. 

Mrs.  Croly.  The  club  idea  was  an  advance  upon  the  women's  societies 
which  had  preceded  it  and  which  were  usually  devoted  to  some  single  ob- 
ject, and  attracted  those  who  sympathized  with  it.  The  "club"  had  no 
such  basis  of  union.  It  brought  together  women  of  many  minds,  of  differ- 
ent degrees,  and  every  shade  of  opinion.  Women,  having  less  experience 
than  men,  are  usually  more  environed  by  prejudices,  and  it  became  part  of 
the  education  of  the  club  to  take  these  down  from  their  position  as  virtues. 
The  club  was  necessarily  many  sided,  and  inspired  work  which  of  itself  it 
could  not  accomplish  without  a  single  devotion  which  would  have  destroyed 
its  character. 

Sorosis,  the  first  woman's  club,  had  no  precedents ;  but  it  naturally  grew 
into  a  many-sided  and  representative  organization.  When  it  was  formed 
there  were  no  State  Aid  Societies,  or  Industrial  Unions,  or  working-girl's 
guilds.  It  made  the  first  searching  investigations  into  the  conditions  of 
foundlings  and  foundling  hospitals,  and  published  such  full  and  complete 
reports  as  inspired  the  establishment  of  two  foundling  hospitals  in  the  city  of 
New  York  ;  it  organized  the  first  committee  of  inquiry  into  the  condition  of 
shop-girls  in  New  York,  the  exactions  of  employers,  and  the  means  afforded 
for  needed  rest ;  it  published  reports  and  gave  names  of  those  who  were 
humane ;  it  made  the  first  report  and  drew  up  the  first  memorial  presented, 
in  1876,  to  the  University  of  the  city  of  New  York,  and  to  the  President  and 
15 


218  International  Council  of  Women. 

Trustees  of  Columbia  College,  asking  that"  their  doors  should  be  opened  to 
women,  and  stating  what  had  been  done  by  the  universities  in  England,  and. 
elsewhere.  The  minor  details  of  a  very  diversified  work  it  is  not  necessary 
to  recapitulate,  but  it  ought  to  be  remembered  that  the  "  A.  A.  W.,"  known, 
variously,  as  the  "Woman's  Congress,"  and  the  "Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Women,"  owes  its  origin  entirely  to  Sorosis. 

The  club  idea  seems  to  me  to  be  not  generally  understood  or  its  scope 
sufficiently  considered  in  the  organization  of  women.  It  has  been  said  that 
the  efforts  of  women  are  largely  echoes  of  the  activities  of  men.  This  is 
certainly  not  true  of  women's  clubs.  The  Woman's  club  came  together, 
was  founded,  officered,  supported,  maintained  from  the  beginning  till  now, 
solely  by  women.  No  men  entered  into  its  acts  or  its  consequences,  except 
so  far  as  it  has  influenced  their  own  acts  in  their  own  clubs.  The  club-life 
of  women  has  been  distinctive;  it  has  been,  I  think,  quite  unique  in  its  way. 

When  Sorosis  was  first  formed  in  New  York  it  was  asked,  What  would  be 
the  object?  Unless  it  was  a  sewing  society  or  a  missionary  society,  no  one 
supposed  that  it  could  have  an  object.  When  women  came  together  as  a 
club,  they  at  once  began  to  consider  their  own  needs.  They  began  to  con- 
sider what  they  most  required,  and  they  found  that  they  required  an  education 
in  methods,  in  the  way  to  govern  meetings,  in  the  way  of  conducting  socie- 
ties. They  found  that  they  wanted  to  learn,  most  of  all,  what  women  them- 
selves were  doing,  what  the  women  of  the  world  were  engaged  in,  what  they 
were  thinking  about,  and  that  was  the  basis  upon  which  Sorosis  was  formed. 
It  was  formed  as  a  representative  club  of  the  ideas  and  interests  of  women. 

The  only  two  clubs  with  which  I  am  very  familiar  are  those  of  New  York 
and  Philadelphia.  A  very  interesting  organization  has  grown  out  of  the 
Philadelphia  Club.  This  is  the  Working  Women's  Guild,  which  is  now  under 
the  auspices  of  the  New  Century  Women's  Club.  The  Guild  has  a  member- 
ship of  upward  of  700  working  girls.  No  one  can  be  a  member  unless  she 
works  in  a  shop  or  factory,  or  in  some  way  earns  her  own  living  by  some 
form  of  manual  labor.  They  have  classes,  and  the  club-house  represents  as 
many  as  nine  or  ten,  some  six  or  seven  of  which  are  in  session  every  evening. 
Although  the  cooking  class  and  the  two  sewing  classes  of  dressmaking  and 
fancy  needle-work  are  popular,  and  the  gymnasium  is  always  filled,  the  most 
popular  classes  and  the  ones  that  brought  the  largest  constituency  are  the 
literature  and  languages,  and  what  is  known  as  the  thinking  class.  This 
thinking  class  is,  I  believe,  unique  in  the  history  of  women's  clubs.  They 
discuss  philosophy  ;  they  discuss  all  those  subjects  which  we  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  consider  abstruse  ;  and  the  insight,  the  intellectual  strength  which 
those  girls  display,  would  astonish  many  who  consider  themselves  far  in  ad- 
vance of  them  in  culture  and  education. 

The  following  interesting  letter  and  sketch  have  been 
received   from  Germany.     Such  cordial  responses   encourage 


Organization.  219 

us  to  believe  that  our  efforts  at  international   association   of 
women  are  not  premature  : 

To  the  International  Council  of  Women  : 

In  reply  to  your  kind  invitation  to  attend  the  Fortieth  Anniversary  of  the  Woman 
Suffrage  Movement,  we  can  only  regretfully  decline,  as  we  have  already  done  in  the 
columns  of  the  organ  of  our  association,  New  Paths,  a  copy  of  which  has  been  sent 
you. 

The  season  of  the  year,  as  well  as  the  condition  of  our  society,  prevent  us  sending 
a  delegate,  but  we  will,  nevertheless,  be  with  you  in  thought  and  sympathy. 

As  every  advance  made  in  the  service  of  humanity  results  in  the  gain  of  the  entire 
race,  so  an  effort  in  any  land  to  elevate  woman  to  a  more  worthy  position,  uplifts 
women  everywhere.  But  it  is  well  to  show  that  in  every  country  there  are  women 
who  are  ready  to  take  part  in  such  movements,  and  to  strive,  side  by  side  with  the 
women  of  other  nations,  toward  the  same  high  goal.  Therefore,  our  union  sends 
you  a  sisterly  greeting,  and  begs  you  to  extend  it  to  all  the  members  in  your  Council. 
To  this  we  add  a  brief  sketch  of  the  movement  begun  in  Germany  forty  years  ago, 
and  also  of  the  work  of  our  association,  which  is  now  in  its  twenty-third  year. 

We  will  be  very  glad  to  receive  any  reports  of  the  proceedings,  which  you  will 
kindly  forward  to  us  for  use  in  our  journal.  We  send  best  wishes  for  the  success  of 
your  very  important  meeting. 

On  behalf  of  the  management  of  the  Allgemeiue  Deutsche  Frauen-Vereins  : 
Louise  Otto  Peters.  Aloise  Wintor. 

Auguste  Schmidt.  Henriette  Goldschmidt. 

J.  Freiderici. 

Leipzig,  March,  1888. 

THE    WOMAN    MOVEMENT    IN    GERMANY    r848-l888. 

The  beginning  of  the  woman  movement  in  Germany  may,  like  that  of  our 
American  sisters,  be  referred  to  the  year  1848.  At  that  time  a  great  revolu- 
tion went  all  over  the  world,  which  did  not  leave  the  German  women  un- 
moved. They  were  swept  with  the  tide,  and,  in  addition  to  their  usual  work 
of  benevolence,  determined  to  show  the  world  their  own  true  worth  and  con- 
vince men  of  their  rightful  importance  and  position.  Forming  unions,  they 
began  to  take  charge  of  kindergartens,  and  even  of  a  high  school  in  Ham- 
burg. Men  joined  them  in  this  educational  movement  and  helped  to  make 
it  a  success.  In  Saxony  Louise  Otto  published  and  edited  for  four  years 
a.  journal  which  gave  all  the  news  concerning  woman's  rights. 

In  1865  was  held  in  Leipzig  a  convention,  the  object  of  which  was  not 
charity,  but  the  intellectual  elevation  of  woman.  In  the  same  year  the  Uni- 
versal German  Women's  Union  founded,  under  the  management  of  Auguste 
Schmidt,  a  home  and  school  for  poor  girls  and  orphans  in  which  they  were 
taught  to  make  their  own  living.  From  the  date  of  its  organization  until 
1872  the  Union  published  a  small  paper  reporting  its  work.  Since  that  our 
organization,  as  well  as  the  woman  movement  in  general,  has  made  slow  but 
sure  progress  against  great  opposition.  The  journal  issued  by  our  Union, 
New  Ways,  edited  by  Louise  Otto  and  Auguste  Schmidt  (Leipzig),  has  for 


220  International  Council  of  Women. 

its  object  the  advancement  of  women  in  all  lines  of  progress,  but  in  Ger- 
many we  have  to  work  with  great  tact,  and  by  conservative  methods;  many 
copies  of  our  journal,  especially  those  numbers  treating  of  woman's  rights, 
have  been  distributed  all  over  North  and  South  Germany. 

At  the  time  of  the  organization  of  our  National  Union,  local  unions  were 
formed  in  many  cities  and  smaller  towns.  Their  special  work  is  the  build- 
ing and  management  of  schools  for  poor  girls,  in  which  not  only  the  ordi- 
nary studies  of  grammar  schools  are  taught,  but  cooking,  sewing,  etc. 
They  urge  girls  to  realize  in  their  lives  the  motto,  "■  Work  is  an  honor  to 
women."  Almost  simultaneously  with  the  formation  of  our  association  was- 
that  of  the  Loette  Union  (with  which  we  are  on  the  most  friendly  terms),, 
which  originated  and  manages  the  industrial  schools  to  be  found  all  over 
Berlin.     *     *     * 

For  years  our  association  has  been  preparing  a  book  upon  the  legal  rela- 
tions of  men  and  women.  We  have  sent  to  the  Reichstag  one  petition  on 
the  subject,  but  it  was  not  acted  upon.  We  have  made  several  efforts  to  have 
women  admitted  to  the  universities.  We  have  had,  since  1879,  a  "Mutual 
Relief  Fund;  "  the  interest  of  this  capital  is  now  used  to  send  girls  to  the 
Swiss  schools  and  universities,  but  as  soon  as  it  is  allowed  it  will  be  enlarged 
to  found  a  German  university  for  women  equal  to  the  best  now  existing  for 
men.  The  difference  between  our  position  and  that  of  our  American  sisters 
is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  you  live  in  a  republic,  we  in  a  monarchy — you 
in  a  young  country  where  everything  is  new,  we  in  a  land  centuries  old,, 
where  the  ideas  and  habits  of  thought  are,  so  to  speak,  incrusted  in  the 
people. 

Mrs.  Gage.  You  will  now  hear  from  Mrs.  May  Wright  Sewall,  of  Indian- 
apolis. 

Mrs.  Sewall.  So  many  points  have  been  already  touched  on  the  circum- 
ference of  this  enlarging  sphere  of  woman  that  it  seems  almost  impossible  to 
find  two  more  to  which  it  will  be  profitable  to  call  your  attention,  in  con- 
nection especially  with  organization  as  a  feature  of  modern  life. 

Organization  grows  out  of  the  principle  of  division  of  labor,  and  also  is 
the  result  of  the  expression  of  the  many-sidedness  of  human  nature.  This 
many-sidedness  has  long  been  known  to  be  an  attribute  of  man.  Men  were 
organized  in  this  country  years  ago  to  represent  its  material  interest.  In 
my  own  rather  centrally  situated  city  scarcely  can  I  pick  up  a  morning 
paper  without  seeing  an  announcement  of  some  association  of  men  that  will 
convene  that  day  in  Indianapolis,  or  the  next  week,  or  the  next  month. 
The  wool-growers,  or  the  horse-breeders,  or  the  poultrymen's  protective 
association  will  convene,  and  so  on  through  all  the  forms  of  labor  that 
engross  men's  thoughts.  Be  they  small  or  large,  or  apparently  of  little 
moment,  they  are  associated  together  for  the  protection  of  their  own  inter- 
ests.    In  the  beginning  of  these  organizations  it  was  not  so  much  a  union 


Organization.  221 

of  those  whose  interests  were  one  because  of  the  sympathy  which  bound 
them  together,  as  it  was  of  those  whose  interests  were  one,  to  separate  from 
those  who  were  opposed  to  them. 

But  the  women  have  organized  themselves  less  for  material  results  and 
more  for  the  objects  affecting  the  spiritual  interests  of  humanity.  We  have 
found  them  organized  for  the  promotion  of  literature,  for  the  study  of  his- 
tory, political  science,  art,  philanthropy,  and  the  charities ;  in  all  these  mani- 
fold ways  for  the  enlargement  of  their  own  interests  and  for  the  protection 
of  the  spiritual  interests  of  humanity.  Undoubtedly  there  was  in  that  which 
led  them  to  combine  something  of  the  same  feeling  which  originally  ani- 
mated combinations  of  men  who  were  organized  for  the  promotion  of  mate- 
rial interests ;  something  of  the  feelings  that  they  were  separated  from  the 
rest  of  human  kind,  and  that  the  hands  of  other  women  were  against  them. 
Certainly  that  was  true  when  women  were  first  organized  to  secure  for  them- 
selves the  political  rights  that  belong  to  citizen£%f  this  Republic  ;  and  so  in 
the  beginning  women  were  classed  by  the  organizations  with  which  they  stood, 
and  many  a  time  have  I  heard  the  question  asked  of  a  woman  when  she  was 
introduced  to  another,  "  Is  she  suffrage  ?  Is  she  temperance  ?  "  In  our  city 
of  Indianapolis  it  is  not  an  infrequent  question,  when  a  lady  is  introduced 
to  another,  to  have  her  ask  :  "  Are  you  art  ?  Are  you  literature  ?  Are  you 
history?  Are  you  orphan  asylum?"  and  so  on,  to  see  if  they  can  find  out 
where  they  belong  together,  where  they  touch  in  their  interests.  But  now 
we  are  having  in  these  later  days  the  happy  illustration  of  the  truth  so  charm- 
ingly set  forth  in  that  wonderful  little  volume  of  Edward  Everett  Hale— 
"  Ten  Times  One  Are  Ten."  I  supposed  men  always  knew,  even  in  those 
remote  days,  when  their  mathematics  stopped  at  the  rule  of  three,  that  ten 
times  one  are  ten.  But  only  in  recent  days  have  we  grasped  the  idea  that 
in  the  realm  of  spiritual  mathematics  ten  times  one  are  more  surely  ten  than 
in  the  material  world.  In  the  material  world  there  may  come  abatements 
of  value,  the  value  of  to-day  may  be  discounted  to-morrow,  or  it  may  be 
above  par ;  but  in  the  spiritual  world  every  time  the  multiplication  is  made 
the  product  is  surely  ten  times  one  are  ten,  and  ten  times  ten  are  one  hun- 
dred, and  ten  times  one  hundred  are  one  thousand,  and  ten  times  one  hun- 
dred thousand  are  one  million.  Is  this  a  weary  sum  to  you  ?  To  me  it  is 
an  illuminating  one.  Going  over  all  the  multiplications  of  this  little  volume, 
we  have  certainly  found  that  ten  times  one  hundred  thousand  are  a  million 
•every  time  ;  and  in  the  various  interests  represented  here  there  are  more 
than  a  million  of  women  who  represent  these  organized  movements. 

Now,  coming  to  this  point  of  many-sidedness,  originally  we  expected  to 
find  the  suffrage  adherents  in  one  tent,  the  temperance  under  another,  liter- 
ature under  another,  and  those  who  were  the  dispensers  of  charities  each 
tinder  their  own  tents.  But  in  time  there  were  frequent  communications, 
passing  from  tent  to  tent,  all  the  occupants  of  these  several  tents  beginning 


222  International  Council  of  Women. 

to  feel  themselves  within  one  camp.  Here  is  the  application  of  our  prin- 
ciple :  The  club  existed,  perhaps,  at  first  because  of  a  single  interest  in  which 
many  were  absorbed.  Then  the  suffrage  women  became  absorbed  in  tem- 
perance, and  the  temperance  women  became  absorbed  in  suffrage,  and  those 
who  were  interested  in  art  were  becoming  interested  in  the  charities,  and  the 
women  who  were  at  first  interested  in  charities  were  found  also  interested  in 
art,  and  charities  and  art  became  mutually  interested.  So  one  woman  can 
no  longer  be  asked,  Are  you  suffrage,  or  are  you  temperance,  orpare  you 
identified  with  any  one  thing?  because  she  is  becoming  interested  in  all.  I 
hope  the  time  will  soon  come  when  we  can  all  reply — in  regard  to  those  of 
whom  we  have  questioned,  Is  she  a  suffrage,  is  she  this,  or  is  she  that? — that 
she  is  a  woman,  and  having  all  these  interests  represented  in  one,  feeling  the 
recognition  of  the  community  of  interests  binding  them  all  together,  a  com- 
munity of  women,  bound  to  neither  one  thing  nor  another,  but  all  daugh- 
ters of  the  living  God. 

Mrs.  Gage.     You  will  now  hear  from  a  lady  who  can  surely  tell  you  all 
there  is  to  tell  of  organization,  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard. 

Miss  Willard  [holding  up  .her  hand  with  outspread  fingers].  You  see 
that  ?  Just  look  at  that.  It  doesn't  amount  to  much.  But  look  at  that 
[holding  up  a  clinched  fist]  ;  that  is  the  difference  between  isolated,  segre- 
gated, passive  womanhood,  and  organized,  vigorous,  harmonious  womanhood. 
All  the  muscles,  all  the  fingers  in  that  little  ball  doubled  up  like  that,  and 
what  a  whacking  blow  they  deal  against  all  wrongs !  I  am  afraid  Amanda 
Deyo  will  think  I  am  a  little  warlike,  but  I  believe  she  and  I  only  wish  to 
lift  this  war  and  carnage  up  to  victory.  We  only  wish  to  turn  all  the 
bullets  into  printer's  type ;  we  only  wish  the  war  to  be  a  war  of 
words,  for  words  are  wings  j  they  are  full  of  lightning.  Every  brain  the 
open  furrow,  every  word  the  seed  cast  in,  and  you  have  humanity  brought  to 
a  different  plane ;  but  you  can't  do  it  alone;  you  can't  do  it  unless  you 
come  along  together  ;  it  is  easier  to  climb  up  together.  As  the  little  girl 
climbing  up  a  slippery  hill  on  a  wintry  day,  reaching  up  her  paddies  to  her 
taller  sister,  said,  "  Oh,  it  is  easier  taking  hold  of  hands."  Somebody  who 
has  studied  these  things  a  great  deal  said  to  me  :  "  You  can  tell  a  harmo- 
nious and  organizing  nature,  because  the  involuntary  position  of  the  hands- 
will  be  like  that"  [folded  together].  Now,  I  notice  Mary  Eastman  stood 
that  way.  I  notice  that  women,  except  when  they  are  on  their  society  style 
and  manner,  stand  that  way.  I  believe  the  bringing  of  one  hand  up  to  the 
other  so  that  they  can  grasp  something  is  the  mighty  symbol  of  this 
Woman's  Council.  To  me  it  is  the  grandest  thought  that  ever  flew  out 
of  a  woman's  brain  and  caught  enthusiasm  out  of  a  woman's  heart. 
See  a  little,  lonesome,  stray  snowflake  come  down  through  the  air ;. 
it  falls  and  melts  and  is  no  more.  Now  see  others  come  along  talking  in  that 
noiseless,  gossiping  way  together,  and  as  it  comes  down  more  and  more  it 


Organization.  223 

has  evidently  got  something  on  its  mind,  and  after  awhile  it  is  joined  by 
others,  and,  if  it  organizes  its  attack,  it  will  make  a  drift  thirty  feet  high 
that  will  stop  that  fifty-ton  engine  of  Mrs.  Thomas  and  send  it  back  crouch- 
ing on  its  haunches,  and  it  can't  do  a  thing.  And  if  into  that  great  snow- 
storm you  get  a  breeze,  then  it  will  whirl  it  all  away  in  a  second  like  the 
blizzard  you  had. 

Now,  women  are  the  snowflakes.  And  the  organized  attack  is  against  this 
old,  hoary-headed,  materialistic,  conservative  way  of  doing  things.  And 
the  mighty  breeze  that  shall  set  them  flying  is  the  mighty  sisterhood,  and  it 
will  bring  in  all  that  is  good,  and  true,  and  pure.  It  has  been  the  curse  of 
humanity  in  the  past  that  half  the  wisdom,  more  than  half  the  ability, 
more  than  half  the  gentleness  did  not  find  any  organic  expression.  Now  it 
is  getting  expression,  and  we  are  here  not  only  to  see  it  and  sit  about  and 
twirl  our  thumbs  and  watch  it  coming,  but  we  are  here  to  just  put  in  our 
mighty  force  to  make  it  come.  Each  woman  that  has  just  sat  here  and  lent 
a  kind  attention  has  helped  it.  Each  one  who  has  gone  away  and  spoken  a 
kind  word  has  helped  it.  Each  one  that  has  lifted  an  aspiration  toward 
the  great  heart  that  holds  the  world  has  helped  it. 

The  great  power  of  organization  for  women  is,  that  it  brings  them  out ;  it 
translates  them  from  the  passive  into  the  active  voice ;  the  dear,  modest,  cling- 
ing things  didn't  think  they  could  do  anything,  and,  lo  and  behold  !  they 
found  out  they  could.  They  come  to  you  with  a  quiver  of  the  lip,  and  look 
at  you  so  hopeful  and  expectant,  and  wonder  if  they  could  do  something ; 
and  a  year  or  two  after,  you  hear  them  with  deep  voice  and  perfect  equipose 
telling  their  dearest  thought  to  a  great  audience,  or  you  see  them  in  the 
silent  charities,  carrying  out  their  noble  thought  toward  humanity.  You 
know  what  mighty  power  there  is  in  the  snow.  Then  you  go  through  this 
chemical  process  of  the  organizing  power,  and  how  easy  and  simply  you  can 
learn  to  do  it  by  seeing  others  do  it.  It  is  like  the  taking  of  a  photograph — 
first,  the  negative,  which  you  don't  know  anything  about ;  then  it  is  exposed 
to  the  sun  and  colored,  and  brought  out  in  full  perspective.  It  took  a  good 
many  years  to  bring  the  women  of  this  country  out  into  a  perspective  of  an 
International  Council. 

They  were  not  great  enough  at  first,  they  were  not  large  enough.  Boston 
gave  us  the  rationale  of  all  this  in  those  tender  words  of  Julia  Ward  Howe, 
in  that  grandiose  but  perfectly  clear  philosophy  of  Mary  Eastman,  and  in 
the  sharp,  clear-cut  utterances  of  Abby  Morton  Diaz  we  have  had  it  all  set 
before  us  in  its  emphasis  this  morning.  Now  shall  we  set  to  work  and  make 
it  true  ?  Shall  we  merge  our  differences,  accommodate  each  to  the  other  for 
this  great  and  beautiful  mosaic  of  the  International  Council  and  the  National 
Council  ?  I  believe  we  shall.  A  National  society — and  of  course  I  think 
right  straight  away  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  that  I 
know  so  well — is  a  great    pineapple,  with    lots  of  locals  and    auxiliaries, 


224  International  Council  of  Women. 

like  bunches  out  all  over  the  pineapple ;  that  makes  the  National  Society. 
Then  we  have  got  a  great,  splendid  basket,  and  we  are  going  to  put  all  those 
pineapples  into  the  basket,  and  that  basket  is  the  International  Council. 
Let  us  each  and  all  say  that  we  will  help  lift  it  up  and  put  it  in  the  great 
pantheon  where  all  the  fruits  of  civilization,  where  all  the  beauties  of  its 
grand  aggregate  should  go.     *    *    * 

Remembering  what  Mrs.  Croly  told  us,  there  is  a  club  that  I  would  like 
to  tell  you  more  about — a  guild  of  college  girls,  the  Alphi  Phi,  that  is  now 
•established  in  some  of  our  leading  colleges.  In  Syracuse,  connected  with  the 
university,  they  have  built  themselves  a  club-house  ;  they  have  a  matronly 
lady  to  be  their  mother,  and  they  get  their  board  and  all  the  sense  of  com- 
fort dear  to  a  woman,  and  I  warrant  you  there  is  no  tobacco  smoked  in  that 
-club.  I  wish  young  ladies  from  other  schools  would  go  and  do  likewise  ;  it 
is  a  grand  thing  to  do — to  study  every  way  we  can  how  we  can  combine  to 
lift  each  other  up,  and  never  let  any  one  down.  To  my  mind,  organization 
is  the  one  great  thought  of  creation;  it  is  the  difference  between  chaos  and 
order;  it  is  the  constant  occupation  of  God,  and,  next  to  God,  the  greatest 
organizer  on  this  earth  is  the  mother. 

Woman  is  a  great  diplomatist;  in  the  democracy  of  home  woman  is  a 
harmonizer,  who,  when  things  get  mixed,  talks  to  everybody  and  tells 
them  to  make  up;  she  sets  her  home  in  order  and  fits  this  to  that,  and  sees 
that  it  has  a  unity  and  entirety;  and  man — he  didn't  mean  any  harm,  but 
he  wasn't  any  such  harmonizer  as  woman,  and  down  here  on  the  plane  of 
force  he  said  he  would  go  and  get  up  that  wonderful  club  of  government,  and 
he  has  made  it  only  half  a  club  because,  in  the  nature  of  things,  he  couldn't 
do  it  any  other  way.  But  when  woman  comes  to  stand  beside  him  in  law, 
then  we  shall  learn  what  society  might  be,  what  goes  to  make  a  world.  We 
have  only  had  guessings  and  etchings  and  monochromatics  yet;  wait  till  you 
see  the  chromo  and  the  full  and  beautiful  oil  painting.  It  never  will  come 
till  you  get  woman's  eye  and  man's  eye  brought  to  bear  together.  You  will 
never  get  the  grand  perspective,  the  telescopic  view,  until  you  get  their  eyes 
side  by  side.  We  want  to  make  of  humanity's  heart  that  dual  heart  that 
shall  beat  as  one.  We  want  to  make  it  the  sun-glass  that  brings  all  the  di- 
vergent rays  of  power  to  one  focus,  and  through  organization  we  will  set  our 
glass  so  as  to  bring  the  rays  of  power  into  convergence,  and  make  them  burn 
and  blaze  on  every  wrong  until  all  error  shall  be  swept  away  and  the  blessed 
sunshine  of  truth  stream  upon  us,  and  we  shall  say:  "  Lo  and  behold! 
humanity  is  as  God  said  it  should  be  :  made  in  His  own  image,  male  and 
female,  with  dominion  over  all  the  earth." 

Miss  Anthony.  After  telling  you  that  everybody  else  must  send  their 
notices  to  the  Tribune,  and  not  bother  this  Council  with  them,  I  am  going 
to  give  you  one  from  the  White  House,  signed  by  Secretary  Lamont.  He 
says:   "  I  am  directed  to  say,  in  reply  to  your  note  of  inquiry,  that  the  Presi- 


Organization.  225 

dent  and  Mrs.  Cleveland  will  receive  the  women  of  the  International  Council 
on  Friday,  to-morrow  afternoon,  at  half-past  three  o'clock." 

With  regard  to  organization,  if  Miss  Foster  were  here  she  would  second 
me  in  saying  that  the  greatest  hindrance  in  the  way  of  securing  a  represen- 
tative demonstration  of  all  the  lines  of  work  in  which  women  are  occu- 
pied has  come  from  the  fact  that  they  are  not  organized.  We  will  take, 
for  instance,  the  Women's  Clubs.  They  are  all  over  this  nation.  In  New 
Orleans  there  is  a.  splendid  club,  in  Kansas  there  is  one  containing  600  of 
the  best  cultured  women  of  that  State.  When  it  was  decided  to  invite 
Sorosis,  we  thought  it  was  the  oldest  club,  but  the  New  England  Club 
vies  with  Sorosis  in  having  been  organized  a  little  earlier ;  but  no  matter 
who  was  first,  somebody  must  be  first,  and  I  have  noticed  that  when  any 
movement  comes  into  the  world  it  springs  up  in  a  dozen  places  at  the  same 
time.  This  is  remarkable,  but  it  is  true.  History  shows  that  every  woman 
who  has  written  of  her  society,  or  herself,  has  always  said  it  was  the  first 
time  it  was  ever  done  by  any  woman.  And  the  reason  they  feel  in  this  way 
is  because  there  has  been  no  association  ;  each  woman  has  stood  alone 
in  the  world,  and  so  has  thought  herself  first  in  everything. 

Mrs.  Gage  then  adjourned  the  Convention. 


THUKSDAY,  MARCH  29,  1888. 

EVENING  SESSION. 

LEGAL  CONDITIONS. 

Miss  Anthony  presiding.  Music  by  the  orchestra.  Invoca- 
tion, Mrs.  Susan  H.  Barney. 

The  Chairman.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  Mrs.  Dever- 
eux  Blake,  President  of  the  New  York  State  Suffrage  Association. 

LEGAL  DISABILITIES. 

Mrs.  Blake.  A  general  impression  prevails,  especially  among  foreigners, 
that  in  this  country  the  legal  disabilities  of  women  have  been  largely 
removed.  But  this  is  very  far  from  being  the  case.  Even  in  Massachusetts, 
usually  considered  so  progressive,  only  recently,  and  after  a  long  fight,  has 
the  right  been  secured  to  a  widow  to  be  buried  beside  her  husband  in  the 
family  lot  j  and,  despite  all  the  prating  about  the  home  as  woman's  appro- 
priate place,  in  a  large  part  of  our  country  a  married  woman  has  no  legal 
home.  After  her  husband's  death  "  the  widow  may  remain  forty  days  in  her 
husband's  residence,"  so  runs  the  law  in  more  than  half  our  States.  In  some 
of  the  Western  States  a  modification  of  this  provision  has  taken  place. 
Under  the  "  Homestead  Act''  the  home  always  belongs  to  the  mother.  A 
married  man  in  those  States  can  not  own  the  home  in  which  he  lives ;  mar- 
riage makes  it  his  wife's. 

The  English  common  law,  with  all  the  cruel  provisions  which  grew  up  in 
the  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages,  was  the  basis  of  American  jurisprudence. 
But  many  of  the  oppressive  provisions  of  the  English  common  law  have  been 
modified,  in  most  of  the  States,  so  far  as  to  secure  to  a  married  woman  the  right 
to  her  property  and  separate  earnings.  But  the  iron  rule  of  the  English  law 
still  controls  in  some  of  the  Northern  and  several  of  the  Southern  States  ; 
and  under  its  provisions  the  wife  is  literally  merged  in  the  husband — she  has 
no  separate  existence,  and  marriage  is  civil  death.  Blackstone  says  that 
"  woman  is  a  perpetual  minor;  "  that  "the  husband  and  wife  are  one,  and 
that  one  the  husband,"  and  this  is  literally  true.  A  married  woman  can  not 
sign  a  contract,  can  not  rent  a  house  ;  absolutely,  she  has  no  civil  existence. 
If  she  goes  into  business,  every  dollar  that  she  makes  belongs  to  her  husband. 
If  she  works  outside  of  the  house  and  draws  a  salary  for  her  services,  all  that 
she  earns  is  his.  If  she  is  injured  by  an  accident,  her  husband  sues  the  re- 
sponsible person  for  the  loss  of  his  wife's  services.  In  the  language  of  Pe- 
truchio,  he  may  truly  say  : 

"  She  is  my  goods,  m5r  chattel ;  she  is  my  house, 
My  household  stuff,  my  field,  my  barn, 
My  horse,  my  ox,  my  ass,  my  anything." 


Legal  Conditions.  227 

Her  legal  position  is  accurately  described  by  the  words.  She  is  nothing 
but  an  adjunct  of  her  husband  in  life,  his  relict  after  death.  Recently,  at  a 
public  dinner,  the  list  of  guests  was  published,  with  this  statement  appended: 
"  Those  having  stars  attached  to  their  names  were  accompanied  by  ladies ;  " 
the  women  were  of  so  little  consequence  they  were  not  worth  mentioning. 
Small  wonder  that  this  should  be  the  estimate  in  which  they  are  held,  after 
centuries  of  common  law  rule. 

But  the  most  cruel  of  all  the  provisions  of  this  code  is  that  which  gives 
the  children  to  the  father,  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  while  in  so  large  a 
portion  of  our  States  the  law  has  been  so  modified  as  to  give  a  woman  the 
control  of  her  own  property  and  her  own  earnings,  there  are  only  three 
States  in  the  Union — Kansas,  New  Jersey,  and  Iowa — where  a  woman  has 
any  claim  to  her  own  children.  In  all  the  other  States  the  husband  has  the 
absolute  right  to  bind  out  the  children  or  to  give  them  away,  or  by  will  to 
appoint  a  guardian  for  them  after  his  death  ;  the  mother  has  no  legal  rights 
whatsoever  to  control  the  destinies  of  the  children  for  whom  she  has  risked 
death. 

There  is  a  positive  premium  on  dishonor  in  these  States ;  the  poor  girl 
whose  child  is  born  out  of  wedlock  owns  it,  the  burden  and  the  shame  are 
hers ;  the  honorable  wife  has  no  right  to  her  child  for  a  single  instant  of 
its  existence ;  even  when  it  is  under  her  heart  it  is  not  hers.  Can  human 
slavery  go  deeper  ?  Of  course  this  law  is  of  small  concern  in  really  happy 
homes,  and  we  have  so  many  of  these  that  we  sometimes  forget  the  others. 
But  where  the  couple  are  inharmonious,  where  the  husband  is  tyrannical  or 
unkind,  this  enactment  is  a  fruitful  source  of  misery  to  women.  I  am 
ashamed  to  say  that,  with  all  our  boasted  advances  in  New  York,  we  have 
this  law  in  full  force,  and  with  especial  severity  of  provisions.  A  man 
may  will  away  his  child  though  he  die  before  it  be  born,  and  strangers 
can  take  it  from  its  mother's  arms  so  soon  as  it  has  a  separate  existence. 
Ah,  you  may  say,  such  cruel  provisions  are  never  enforced,  but  they  are. 
A  poor  young  German  some  years  ago  married  an  industrious  American 
girl,  who  supported  him  until  he  died.  He  was  under  age,  but  wished  to 
make  a  will,  and  to  humor  a  dying  man's  caprice  she  paid  a  lawyer  for  draw- 
ing the  instrument.  Some  months  after  the  boy-hu3band's  death  a  baby  was 
born  to  her,  and  when  the  little  creature  was  a  few  months  old  she  found 
that  her  husband's  will  gave  the  child  to  his  parents,  in  Michigan.  Protests 
and  tears  were  unavailing,  for  her  own  child  was  not  hers  legally,  and 
strangers  took  it  as  their  own. 

In  New  York  divorce  is  very  difficult,  granted  only  for  one  cause,  and 
where  the  parents  live  apart  the  children  belong  to  the  father,  unless  a 
court  interferes  in  the  mother's  favor.  Where  husband  and  wife  are  sepa- 
rated, the  father  can  keep  the  children,  and  I  have  known  instances  where 
the  husband,  accompanied  by  a  lawyer  and  a  police  officer,  has  torn  a  child, 
his  child  !  from  the  arms  of  its  mother. 


228  International  Council  of  Women. 

To  return  to  the  question  of  the  joint  earnings  of  the  marriage  copartner- 
ship. One  of  the  most  unjust  of  the  legal  disabilities  under  which  woman 
suffers  is,  that  she  has  no  protection  whatsoever  in  the  possession  of  her  share 
of  the  family  income.  While  wives  are  secured  the  right  to  their  earnings 
outside  of  the  home,  they  can  not  legally  claim  a  dollar  for  their  life-long 
services  within  the  home.  Even  where  a  couple  marry  in  their  youth  and 
labor  side  by  side  on  a  farm  or  in  a  store,  the  woman  working  just  as  much 
as  the  man,  and  perhaps  more,  because  the  cares  of  household  and  children 
are  added  to  business  cares,  every  dollar  that  they  both  earn  is  legally  the 
husband's.     This  is  the  law  in  every  State  and  Territory  of  the  Union. 

The  importance  of  the  headship  of  man  is  maintained  by  men,  even  the 
most  liberal.  Last  year  the  legislature  of  Ohio  adopted  a  new  code  of  laws, 
which,  it  was  boasted,  gave  to  the  married  women  of  that  State  equal  rights 
with  men ;  but  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  there  was  not  a  word  in  it 
with  regard  to  the  joint  earnings,  and  one  of  the  sections  gravely  declared 
that  "  the  husband  is  the  head  of  the  family,"  as  if  any  law  could  make  a 
man  the  superior,  where  his  natural  gifts  did  not  entitle  him  to  supremacy ! 
The  proud  Scottish  chief  said,  "  Where  McGregor  sits,  there  is  the  head  of 
the  table,"  and  the  God-given  endowment  of  intellectual  power  crowns 
sometimes  a  queen. 

This  injustice  of  denying  to  the  wife  any  legal  share  in  the  family  income 
has  been  a  constant  factor  in  the  subjection  of  woman.  There  can  be  no 
independence  without  pecuniary  independence.  Yet  look  at  the  position  of 
men's  wives ;  they  toil  day  and  night  in  the  care  of  their  families,  and  yet 
never  feel  that  they  have  any  right  to  money  in  payment  for  their  labors. 
Whatever  they  have  the  husband  "  gives  "  them  ;  they  are  pensioners  on  his 
bounty,  not  the  rightful  sharers  of  his  purse.  And  who  are  they  who  thus 
devote  their  lives  to  unrecompensed  toil?  They  are  the  mothers  of  the  race, 
performing  the  most  important  service  that  is  rendered  by  any  citizen  to  the 
State ;  for  what  is  the  work  of  the  farmer,  the  shopkeeper,  the  lawyer,  or 
even  the  editor,  compared  to  the  work  of  the  mother  who  bears  and  rears 
the  coming  generation*?  How  much  the  race  suffers  to-day  from  the  pro- 
longed subjection  of  the  mothers  we  can  never  know.  Every  man  is  the  child 
of  his  mother  as  well  as  of  his  father,  and  whatever  injustice,  whatever  of 
degradation  she  has  endured,  is  reflected  by  cowardice,  by  meanness,  and  by 
loss  of  self-respect  in  her  son. 

Men  prate  much  of  an  eight-hour  law  for  their  work.  Do  they  ever  agitate 
for  an  eight-hour  law  for  their  wives  ?  Though  I  did  hear  of  an  industrious 
oody  who,  rising  at  four  o'clock,  labored  diligently  for  eight  hours,  and 
when  her  husband  came  home  at  noon  for  his  dinner  told  him  that  she  was 
practicing  what  he  preached.  Few  wives  have  so  much  independence.  Day 
after  day,  year  after  year,  they  toil  patiently,  not  even  venturing  to  think 
that  they  are  entitled  to  any  money  of  their  own,  doing  the  mightiest  work 


Legal  Conditions.  220 

that  is  done  in  this  world  without  earning  anything  by  their  labor,  their 
sagacity,  their  frugality,  their  energy  bringing  no  reward,  and  too  often  end- 
ing their  days  in  an  old  age  of  dependence  and  humiliation. 

In  the  courts  of  justice  throughout  the  land  women  have  no  protection  by 
the  presence  of  their  sex  on  the  bench,  in  the  jury-box,  or  at  the  bar.  The 
right  of  trial  by  a  jury  of  their  peers,  which  has  been  held  so  essential  a  pro- 
tection, has  been  denied  to  women,  except  in  a  few  instances  in  the  Territories; 
and  we  find  in  the  statute-books  of  every  State  that  women  are  held  to  full 
accountability  for  violation  of  the  laws,  in  which  they  are  denied  an  equal 
voice.  Women  are  either  grown  up,  or  they  are  children  ;  if  they  have 
reached  the  full  stature  of  citizenship,  then  are  they  entitled  to  the  protec- 
tion which  the  exercise  of  the  rights  of  citizenship  gives;  if  they  are  chil- 
dren, then  they  should  be  dealt  with  as  children.  We  do  not  hang  minors 
in  this  country,  but  we  do  hang  women.  The  only  legal  equality  that  has 
been  always  accorded  to  them  is  the  equality  of  the  prison  and  the  gallows. 
Thus,  briefly,  I  have  endeavored  to  review  some  of  the  anomalies  and  cruel- 
ties of  woman's  legal  status  in  a  republic  that  boasts  of  its  freedom  from  all 
oppression. 

The  dome  of  yonder  proud  Capitol,  in  which  our  national  laws  are  made, 
is  surmounted  by  a  statue  of  Liberty  in  the  majestic  form  of  woman.  Year 
after  year  she  stands  there,  patiently  holding  the  aegis  and  the  spear;  the 
shield  that  has  not  yet  been  able  to  cover  her  woman's  heart  from  blows, 
the  spear  that  as  yet  is  powerless  for  her  protection.  Each  new  dawn  that 
flushes  her  helmet  with  rosy  light  brings  nearer  the  day  when  she  shall  no 
longer  be  a  helpless  mockery ;  when  all  the  clouds  of  custom  and  prejudice  shall 
be  rolled  away,  and  the  sun's  early  rays,  vivifying  all  nature,  shall  reveal  the 
goddess  with  her  shield  raised  and  her  spear  set  in  rest,  and  freedom  for 
woman  shall  mean  justice  everywhere,  encircling  the  globe. 

The  Chairman.  We  have  been  hearing  about  the  common  law  of  En- 
gland from  an  American.  Now  we  will  have  something  of  it  from  an  En- 
glish woman,  Mrs.  Alice  Scatcherd,  of  Leeds,  who  is  a  delegate  from  the 
Edinburgh  National  Society  for  Women's  Suffrage  and  from  the  Women's 
Liberal  Associations  of  Darlington,  Yorkshire,  and  Southport. 

LEGAL   CONDITIONS   OF   WOMEN    IN   THE   THREE    KINGDOMS   OF  GREAT    BRITAIN 

AND    IRELAND. 

Mrs.  Scatcherd.  Mrs.  Devereux  Blake  has  not  in  the  least  overstated  to 
you  the  brutality  of  the  old  common  law  of  England.  This  morning  some 
one  said  to  me  in  the  hotel,  **  I  hope  you  will  not  be  too  bitter  toward  the 
men  to-night."  I  shall,  at  the  outset  of  what  I  am  going  to  say,  assure  you 
that  I  am  not  actuated  in  the  slightest  degree  by  any  feelings  of  bitterness 
toward  men,  nor,  I  am  sure,  was  the  last  speaker.  But  we  must  state  these 
things  in  order  that  we  may  prove  our  case,  and  I  hope  that  you  felt  as 
shocked  as  I  did  when  I  heard  Mrs.  Blake. 


230  International  Council  of  Women. 

In  speaking  to  you  about  the  legal  condition  of  women  in  the  Three  King- 
doms I  shall  divide  my  subject  under  four  headings — the  Industrial  Rights  of 
Women,  the  Property  Rights  of  Women,  the  Family  Rights  of  Women,  and 
the  Personal  Rights  of  Women. 

First,  as  to  industry.  During  the  last  forty  years  many  trades  and  profes- 
sions were  opened  to  women.  We  rejoice  with  you  in  these  new  paths 
of  usefulness.  But,  at  the  same  time,  with  us,  we  have  seen  another  thing 
going  on  which  we  deeply  deplore,  and  that  is  the  legislative  restriction  of 
woman's  labor.  Parliament  is,  year  by  year,  interfering  more  and  more 
in  every  department.  Englishmen  would  not  submit  to  have  their  labor 
handicapped  in  that  way  for  a  single  week.  They  have  votes;  they  can 
protect  their  rights.  We  have  no  votes,  and  we  can  not  protect  our  rights. 
This  legislative  restriction  of  labor  is  a  very  serious  one  for  English  women. 

The  first  act  which  greatly  interfered  with  women's  labor  was  the  Factory 
Act  of  1874.  We  were  told  that  it  was  to  be  the  last  great  interference  with 
woman's  labor.  It  told  a  woman  exactly  how  long  she  might  work,  at  what 
time,  and  almost  where  she  could  get  her  meals.  But  in  1878  there  came  a 
further  act  of  restriction,  which  was  called  the  "  Consolidation  of  Workshops 
Act."  And  now  all  the  dressmakers,  all  the  large  factories,  all  the  seam- 
stresses, and  places  where  a  fair  number  of  women  are  employed  are  under 
government  inspection.  Women  have  been  turned  out  of  the  brick-fields  of 
England,  and  one  or  two  attempts  have  been  made  to  turn  them  out  of  the 
chain  and  nail-making  trades. 

There  is  only  one  instance  where  women  have  successfully  and  at  once 
resisted  legal  interference,  and  that  was  the  Pit  Brow  women  of  Lancashire, 
where  there  are  very  large  coal-mines.  Women  are  employed  very  largely  on 
the  brows  of  the  pit  to  push  the  coal-carts  and  work  in  various  ways.  Some 
good  men  though  it  was  not  fit  work  for  women.  Of  course,  this  is  always 
done  with  the  best  intentions,  but  it  lessens  their  wages  and  lessens  their 
freedom,  and  we  do  not  thank  men  for  acting  upon  these  good  intentions. 
The  women  could  not  see  the  evil  of  legislative  interference  before  it  was 
proposed  actually  to  sweep  them  away  at  once  from  the  pit-brows.  They 
couldn't  have  their  living  taken  away  from  them,  so  they  protested  most 
vigorously,  and  three  or  four  of  them  went  up  to  the  House  of  Commons 
and  that  piece  of  injustice  really  was  prevented.  Women  can  not  see  the 
evil  of  interference  with  their  labor  when  it  only  lessens  their  hours  of  work  ; 
but  the  right  to  limit  woman's  labor  implies  the  denial  that  she  shall  labor' 
at  all.  Women  are  hungry  as  well  as  men,  and  one  of  the  first  rights  of  a 
human  being  is  to  be  able  to  supply  his  or  her  hunger.  And  we  say  it  is 
most  unjust  and  outrageous  that  the  right  to  supply  a  woman's  hunger  should 
be  dependent  upon  the  will  of  another. 

Then  as  to  the  property  rights  of  women.  Single  women  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland  have  the  same  property-holding  power  as  men.    There 


Legal  Conditions.  231 

is  one  law  which  is  unjust  to  all  women,  and  that  is  the  law  of  intestacy.  If 
a  man  die  without  making  a  will,  his  male  relatives  come  in  for  a  much  larger 
share  of  his  property  than  do  his  female  relatives  ;  if  a  woman  die  without 
making  a  will,  again  her  male  relatives  come  in  for  a  larger  share  of  her  prop- 
erty than  her  female  relatives.  For  instance,  if  a  man  die  without  children 
and  he  has  no  near  relative,  one  would  naturally  suppose  that  his  money 
would  go  to  his  wife ;  not  so  ;  only  half  goes  to  her.  Who  gets  the  other  half? 
The  crown;  but  if  a  woman  die  without  making  a  will,  and  she  has  no  chil- 
dren or  near  relatives,  and  I  know  two  or  three  such  cases,  who  gets  the 
whole  of  the  money  ?     Why,  the  husband,  of  course. 

Before  1871  the  property-holding  rights  of  married  women  were  simply 
nil.  The  law  was  about  as  bad  as  it  could  be — a  relic  of  the  old  barbarous 
days  when  women  literally  were  the  slaves  of  men,  their  goods  and  chattels. 
In  1871,  after  long  years  of  very  arduous  labor,  a  bill  was  introduced  which 
had  many  bad  clauses,  but  one  exceedingly  good  clause.  Before  that  time 
every  penny  that  a  woman  earned  belonged  to  her  husband,  so  that  if  a 
woman  had  been  out  charring  and  working  by  the  day,  and  had  earned  two 
shillings  or  a  half  a  dollar,  the  husband  could  claim  the  money,  and  not  the 
wife.  But  this  bill  of  1871  had  this  one  good  point  about  it — that  it  did 
give  to  married  women  the  money  which  they  earned.  So  we  accepted  it 
because  it  brought  comfort  and  blessing  to  thousands  and  millions  of  homes 
in  our  country.  Why  men  have  been  so  afraid  to  allow  women  to  have  what 
is  their  own  I  can  not  tell.  Where  should  a  good  wife  be  likely  to  spend 
her  money  but  on  her  husband  and  her  children  ?  We  do  not  say  because 
men  have  money  that  they  therefore  cease  to  be  affectionate  parents  or  spend 
their  money  away  from  home,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  the  possession  of  any 
property  will  not  induce  women  to  act  differently  from  what  the  men  do. 
We  had  the  House  of  Lords  to  thank  for  the  delay  which  has  taken  place  in 
the  passing  of  the  Married  Woman's  Property  Act.  They  have  most  curious 
ideas  as  to  the  liking  of  any  married  women  to  have  money  in  their  pockets 
at  all.  They  said,  for  instance,  in  this  bill  that  if  a  woman  had  ^200  left 
to  her  she  might  have  that  sum,  but  if  it  was  over  ,£200  she  wasn't  able  to 
take  care  of  it,  and  was  not  to  have  it  unless  it  was  specified  for  her  special 
use.  It  is  the  law  of  England  that  talks  about  separate  use  ;  we  wives  never 
talk  about  separate  use  of  our  money. 

Lord  Fraser  said  that  he,  for  one,  couldn't  see  what  a  woman  wanted  to 
have  money  in  her  pocket  for  to  spend  as  she  pleased.  Perhaps,  if  Lord 
Fraser  had  at  one  time  possession  of  a  large  amount  of  property,  and  had 
been  suddenly  deprived  of  it  because  he  had  entered  into  the  honorable  state 
of  marriage,  he  would  understand  why  he  would  like  to  have  some  money 
in  his  pocket  to  spend,  and  why  women  would  like  it. 

Wives  were  regarded  as  the  property  of  men.  A  dressmaker  was  injured 
not  many  years  ago  in  a  railway  accident  near  Dublin,  and  seriously  injure 


232  International  Council  of  Women. 

too.  She  had  been  separated  from  her  husband  for  three  or  four  years,  and 
had  maintained  herself  by  dressmaking.  As  a  married  woman  could  not  sue 
in  the  courts  in  her  own  name,  she  had  to  obtain  the  consent  of  her  hus- 
band, and  he,  seeing  that  some  money  was  likely  to  be  awarded,  gave  the 
consent.  He  went  into  court.  Ninety-five  pounds  damage  was  awarded. 
Who  got  that  ?  Not  the  woman  who  was  injured,  but  the  man  whose  prop- 
erty she  was.  Baron  Dows  remarked  at  that  time :  "  This  forms  a  very 
strong  argument  for  those  women  who  are  striking  for  political  rights." 

In  1883  a  far  better  married  woman's  property  act  was  passed  ;  and  now 
when  a  woman  marries  she  does  not  lose  control  of  her  property.  A  man 
used  to  say — he  does  so  now — "  with  all  my  worldly  goods  I  thee  endow." 
And  then  he  used  to  take  possession  of  everything  the  woman  had,  even  to 
the  gown  she  stood  up  in.  Since  1883  if  a  woman  marries  she  retains  con- 
trol of  her  own  property.  Before  1883,  if  a  woman  had  one  hundred  pounds 
and  a  man  had  one  hundred  pounds,  immediately  they  were  married  the 
man  had  two  hundred  pounds  and  she  had  none.  Well,  we  didn't  like  that, 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  now  we  are  glad  to  say  the  law  is  altered,  and  a 
woman  may  buy  and  sell,  save  or  dispose,  or  will  or  invest  her  property  as 
she  likes.  She  may  even  have  a  bank  account.  I  never  shall  forget  when, 
some  years  ago,  I  went  to  one  of  our  banks  in  the  town  of  Leeds  to  open  a 
banking  account.  There  was  some  little  talk  among  the  officers,  and  at  last 
two  gentlemen  were  brought  to  me,  and  said  :  "Is  your  husband  with  you; 
has  he  come  to  say  he  gives  his  consent?  "  Isaid,  "No."  Theysaid:  "Have 
you  brought  a  note  from  him  to  say  that  he  gives  his  consent  to  your  open- 
ing an  account  here?"  I  said :  "No;  don't  you  care  to  have  women's 
banking  accounts?"  They  said:  "Well,  without  the  full  consent  of  the 
husband,  we  have  often  a  great  deal  of  trouble  with  women's  bank  ac- 
counts." I  don't  blame  them.  It  is  the  state  of  the  law  that  gives  them  so 
much  trouble  about  banking  accounts  of  women. 

A  Woman  now  can  even  make  a  contract  with  her  husband,  and  we  are 
hoping  that  under  this  new  law  and  the  power  of  making  a  contract  with 
your  own  husband  to  enter  into  business  with  him,  that  that  may  remedy  the 
evil ;  because  it  is  monstrous  to  think  that  a  woman  works  for  years  and 
years  side  by  side  with  a  man,  saving  his  money,  making  him  money,  doing 
her  very  utmost  to  push  the  business  ;  that  then  that  man  has  a  right  to  leave 
her  penniless.  It  is  true  even  yet  that  an  English  husband  has  the  right  to 
leave  his  wife  penniless.  It  is  monstrous,  I  think,  that  where  husband  and 
wife  have  lived  together  in  unity  that  he  has  the  right  to  do  such  a  thing.  It 
is  not  a  case  of  what  good  men  won't  do ;  it  is  a  case  of  what  bad  men 
will  do.     This  in  regard  to  England  and  Ireland. 

A  very  good  measure  was  passed  for  Scotland,  which  meted  out  a  very 
large  share  of  justice  to  the  wives  there.  A  Scotch  woman  can  not  buy  stock 
or  invest  her  money  as  easily  as  an  English  woman.     I  was  talking  with 


Legal  Conditions.  233 

some  American  ladies  yesterday,  and,  speaking  of  these  matters,  one  turned 
to  another  and  said  :  "  Just  imagine  her  being  so  glad  because  they  have  got 
their  own  property.  Why,  we  have  had  it  here  for  a  long  time.  It  is  not  a 
thing  for  us  to  rejoice  about."  I  am  very  glad  that  in  many  of  the  States  of 
your  Union  much  more  justice  has  prevailed  than  has  prevailed  with  us,  and 
we  shall  not  cease  to  rejoice  about  it  for  a  whole  generation,  I  suppose. 
Then  I  ought  to  say  there  are  many  people  who  work  very  hard  to  have 
alterations  made  in  this  law,  but  for  the  last  twelve  or  fifteen  years  what  we 
have  had  is  due  largely  to  the  efforts  of  two  noble  women,  namely,  Mrs. 
Jacob  Bright,  wife  of  the  member  from  Manchester,  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Wolstenholme  Elmy. 

Before  1886  a  woman  hadn't  any  rights  in  the  family  whatsoever.  Up  to  that 
time  a  father  might  give  away  his  child  during  the  lifetime  of  the  mother ; 
he  might  will  away  that  child  at  his  death  ;  he  might  send  it  to  any  school 
that  he  chose  and  have  it  brought  up  in  any  religion  that  he  liked.  It  is 
said  that  it  is  the  mother's  duty  to  teach  the  child  to  pray  at  her  knees. 
Why,  the  child  belonged  entirely  to  the  father  and  she  had  no  right 
to  say  what  he  should  be  taught.  In  fact,  the  very  expression  in  the 
English  law  shows  that.  It  says  :  "  By  nature  and  by  nurture  the  father  is 
the  sole  parent."  Such  a  condition  of  things  was  monstrous,  and  yet  the 
alterations  we  have  secured  leaves  the  law  far  from  what  it  ought  to 
be.  Still  we  have  made  a  great  step  forward.  Now,  a  mother,  at  the 
father's  death,  is  considered  the  guardian  of  her  child.  Before,  a  lawyer 
always  had  to  ask  his  client,  "  Do  you  leave  your  wife  the  guardian  of  your 
child?"  Doesn't  it  sound  monstrous  to  ask  if  the  mother  was  to  be  the 
guardian  of  her  own  child?  But  now  the  wife  is  the  guardian,  even  if  her 
husband  appoint  another  guardian — that  is,  she  is  joint  guardian,  of  course; 
and  if  she  be  a  widow  she  can  now  appoint  a  guardian  to  act  for  her 
child  in  case  of  her  death.  Formerly,  she  could  not  do  this.  And, 
supposing  the  father  is  not  a  good  man,  she  can  on  her  death  during 
his  lifetime,  appoint  a  guardian  to  act  with  him.  The  courts,  of  course, 
would  refuse  to  let  such  a  guardian  act,  if  the  man  were  a  good  man.  So 
there  is  a  good  safeguard  against  any  capricious  appointment  of  guardian  to 
act  with  the  father. 

Thus  far  the  most  important  clause  of  the  new  act  is  this  :  It  says  that  the 
courts  shall  take  into  consideration  the  wishes  of  the  mother  as  well  as  of  the 
father.  It  sounds  even  strange  to  my  own  ears  to  speak  in  this  way — the 
wishes  of  the  mother  as  well  as  of  the  father.  Already  that  clause  has  brought 
deep  blessing  in  two  or  three  cases  to  perfectly  innocent  and  good  wives,  if 
I  had  time  to  tell  you  about  them,  and  will  do  to  many  more.  Just  before 
I  left  home  a  case  occurred,  about  which  I  know  very  little,  but  my  husband, 
who  is  a  lawyer,  was  called  upon  by  one  of  the  Roman  Catholic  priests.  A 
woman  was  dying,  and  she  wished  to  leave  her  money  for  the  use  of  her  child 
16 


234  International  Council  of  Women. 

during  its  lifetime,  and  we  did  not  know  quite  what  was  to  be  done  with  it  after- 
wards, but  the  priest  wished  to  know  what  was  the  power  of  the  father,  who 
had  not  been  a  good  man,  over  the  child,  and  my  husband  came  to  me  and 
said:  "  Have  you  got  a  copy  of  the  new  Custody  of  Infants  Act  ?"  I  had,  and 
we  found  that  this  poor  mother  had  the  power  to  appoint  a  co-guardian  for 
her  child  with  her  husband.  Under  this  act  the  poor  have  the  same  advan- 
tages as  the  rich,  because  this  act  can  be  tried  in  the  county  courts  of 
England  and  the  sheriff's  courts  of  Scotland,  and  it  applies  to  England,  Ire- 
land, and  Scotland.  This  act  was  mainly  the  work  of  one  woman  ;  certainly 
nine-tenths  of  the  energy  which  was  brought  to  bear  on  this  question  was 
through  one  woman,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Wolstenholme  Elmy.  The  mothers  of 
England  owe  that  woman  a  debt  of  which  they  are  scarcely  yet  aware.  As 
to  the  personal  rights  of  women,  John  Stuart  Mill  says  :  "  Over  his  own  per- 
son, over  his  own  body  and  soul,  the  individual  is  sovereign."  It  may  be 
so  in  the  case  of  men,  but  it  is  certainly  not  so  in  the  case  of  women. 

We  have  had  in  England  for  nearly  twenty  years  laws  which  outrage,  in  the 
person  of  woman,  every  principle  of  liberty  and  freedom ;  laws  which  con- 
demn the  women  of  our  seaport  towns  to  a  life  worse  than  abject  slavery.  I 
refer  to  the  infamous  Contagious  Diseases  Acts.  It  is  owing  to  the  heroic  efforts 
of  one  noble  woman,  who  warned  the  English  women  of  the  prison  doors 
that  were  closing  upon  them  at  the  time  those  acts  were  introduced  ;  it  is 
owing  chiefly  to  her  heroic  conduct,  that  those  acts  were  swept  away  and  En- 
gland freed  from  such  a  disgrace — Mrs.  Josephine  Butler.  In  a  circular 
issued  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  this  great  Council  there  occurred 
these  words:  "The  position  of  woman  anywhere  affects  the  position  of 
woman  everywhere."  Never  were  truer  words  uttered.  In  many  of  the  En- 
glish dependencies  and  in  one  or  two  of  the  English  colonies  these  infamous 
acts  are  still  in  force.  We  never  know  when  the  cloven  foot  of  State  regu- 
lation may  show  itself;  we  have  to  be  ever  vigilant  and  on  the  alert,  because  so 
long  as  these  acts  remain  in  any  part  of  our  dominion,  no  English  woman  is 
safe.  No,  so  long  as  they  remain  in  any  country  no  women  are  safe,  because, 
to  the  disgrace  of  our  legislators  be  it  said,  they  copied  these  infamous 
laws  from  France ;  and  it  was  the  religious  fervor  of  English  women  which 
swept  the  laws  away,  and  we  pray  God  they  may  never  return. 

Another  point  which  I  would  like  to  show  is  that  the  condition  of  woman 
anywhere  affects  her  condition  everywhere.  A  few  years  ago  a  young  man 
of  good  family  in  the  north  of  England,  called  Mr.  Christopher  Bethel, 
went  out  to  the  south  of  Africa  and  there  married  a  young  girl  belonging  to 
the  Barolong  tribe.  He  married  her  according  to  all  the  rights  of  the  tribe  - 
he  fulfilled  every  obligation  which  the  chiefs  of  that  tribe  could  demand  of 
him.  It  was  an  honorable  marriage  in  every  way.  Six  months  after  his 
marriage  he  died,  and  three  months  after  his  little  daughter  was  born. 
Meantime  his  father  in  England  had  died  and  had  left  some  money  to  his 


Legal  Conditions.  235 

son  in  South  Africa.  This  little  girl  was  the  heir  to  this  money,  and  when 
the  case  was  tried  in  the  English  courts  to  see  whether  she  should  receive  it 
or  not  the  English  lawyers  looked  at  each  other,  and  they  said  that  it  was  a 
Barolong  marriage,  and  that  it  was  not  an  English  marriage,  and  that  a  mar- 
riage in  the  Barolong  sense  was  not  a  marriage  in  the  English  sense  ;  that  a 
marriage  in  the  English  sense  was  not  a  marriage  in  the  Barolong  sense ;  and 
so  we  were  told  that  it  was  a  marriage  and  that  it  was  not  a  marriage,  and 
the  end  of  it  all  was  that  this  was  deemed  not  a  marriage  in  the  English 
sense,  and  the  judge  hoped  that  the  family  of  the  husband  would  look  after 
and  make  some  provision  for  his  little  girl.  I  appeal  to  all  women,  what 
does  this  mean  ?  It  means  that  hundreds  and  thousands  of  Englishmen  who 
go  out  into  our  dependencies — to  Burmah,  to  India,  to  South  Africa — may 
contract  these  marriages  with  native  women  there  according  to  the  rites  of 
their  tribe,  and  when  they  come  home  they  have  a  right  to  cast  off  their 
children  and  wives,  if  they  like,  because  it  is  not  a  marriage  according  to  the 
English  sense.  I  say  that  girl's  case  is  my  case,  and  the  position  of  that 
woman  in  South  Africa  affects  every  woman  in  the  British  Dominions.  Do 
you  suppose  that  men  who  can  go  and  do  such  things  as  that  would  be  hon- 
orable husbands  for  our  daughters?     We  think  not. 

The  laws  of  divorce  are  still  grossly  unequal.  A  husband  in  England  has 
only  to  prove  one  thing — adultery — and  he  gets  a  divorce.  A  wife  has 
to  prove  two  things — both  adultery  and  cruelty — on  the  part  of  the  hus- 
band. There  is  a  gross  inequality.  In  Scotland  the  law  is  much  more  just, 
because  it  gives  divorce  for  the  adultery  of  either  spouse  and  for  willful 
desertion  of  either  spouse.  By  willful  desertion  is  meant  absenting  yourself 
for  three  years.  In  Ireland  there  is  no  divorce  at  all ;  only  judicial  separa- 
tion. You  must  know  that  I  am  one  of  those  who  would  allow  divorce  for 
other  things  than  adultery.  Why  force  a  person  to  commit  a  disgraceful  act 
which  damns  him  in  the  opinion  of  society  in  order  to  loosen  a  tie  that  has 
become  intolerable  ?  I  have  seen  cases  where  the  woman  has  been  a  per- 
sistent profligate ;  where  the  husband  had  no  comfort  whatever  in  his  home  ; 
where  his  children  were  utterly  neglected,  and  where  the  home  was  a  mere 
name.  Should  not  the  husband  have  a  divorce  from  such  a  wife  ?  And  in 
the  same  way  with  a  woman  who  has  a  drunken  husband ;  and  if  a  father 
persistently  refused  to  maintain  his  family  and  neglected  them,  I  would  grant 
a  divorce  for  that. 

I  think  that  Ireland  is  better  than  England  in  the  point  I  am  going  to 
name.  We  have  an  unenviable  notoriety  for  wife-beaters  and  wife-kickers 
in  England,  especially  in  the  north.  Women  at  one  time  were  burned,  had 
their  hair  pulled  and  their  eyes  knocked  out,  and  were  stamped  upon,  and 
other  things,  all  too  horrible  to  tell ;  and  it  was  only  in  1878  that  a  law  was 
passed  which  gave  a  woman  a  right  to  go  before  a  local  magistrate,  and  if 
she  said  she  went  in  fear  of  her  life,  the  magistrate  might  grant  separation. 


236  International  Council  of  Women. 

It  was  at  the  discretion  of  the  magistrate  to  judge  what  was  the  cruelty  that 
had  been  practiced.  And  I  know  magistrates,  sometimes  when  they  have 
seen  that  a  woman  has  not  been  very  much  hurt,  say  they  don't  like  to  turn 
themselves  into  divorce  courts,  and  they  had  better  have  another  chance 
and  try  again.  Now,  I  maintain  that  if  a  husband  has  attempted  to  push 
his  wife  down-stairs,  or  to  gouge  her  eyes  out,  or  to  kick  her,  she  should 
be  separated  from  him,  and  not  have  to  wait  until  she  is  maimed  for  life  and 
then  granted  a  separation. 

Then  I  would  speak  of  the  laws  which  regulate  our  streets.  Our  streets 
are  free  for  men,  but  if  a  woman  on  our  streets  speaks  to  a  man,  a  police  near 
may  come  up  and  accuse  her  of  having  accosted  that  man.  He  may  take 
her  to  the  lock-up,  and  she  must  appear  before  a  magistrate  the  next  morn- 
ing. If  a  person  offers  me  a  box  of  matches  or  oranges  in  the  street  and  I 
pass  on,  I  don't  call  that  molestation.  I  don't  think  with  ordinary  men,  if 
a  woman  speaks  to  them  only  once,  they  would  call  that  molestation,  and 
they  may  pass  on  their  way,  never  dreaming,  perhaps,  that  this  woman  is 
taken  up  by  a  third  person  and  brought  into  the  law  court.  If  any  one  per- 
sistently follows  you  and  you  turn  around  and  say:  "  Now,  you  are  molesting 
me,  and  if  you  do  not  cease  I  will  put  you  in  charge  of  the  police,"  that 
is  right;  but  if  I  do  give  any  one  in  charge,  I  ought  to  appear  in  the  police 
court  to  accuse  her ;  and  if  any  woman  is  taken  up  in  our  streets  by  a  police- 
man, it  ought  to  be  by  a  man  who  is  willing  to  appear  against  her  as  plaintiff 
and  say  that  this  woman  has  molested  him.  It  is  perfectly  monstrous  that 
we  give  to  a  person  who  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it,  the  right  of 
arresting  and  imprisoning  a  woman.  If  men  were  subject  to  the  same  indig- 
nity that  women  are,  they  wouldn't  bear  it  for  one  moment.  They  would 
say:  "  We  will  have  the  law  directly  changed."  I  don't  know  how  the  re- 
ligious women  in  England  have  let  this  law  alone  so  long.  Where  is  the  use 
of  uttering  prayers  and  paying  for  worship,  and  preaching  about  this  thing 
while  you  only  benefit  one  person  ? 

I  will  echo  with  Mrs.  Blake  the  wish  that  we  should  have  women  on  our 
juries.  Then,  again,  I  must  say  that  the  bastardy  laws  of  England  are  sim- 
ply a  disgrace  to  our  country.  Brave  will  be  the  woman  who  interferes  to 
alter  those  laws.  It  is,  indeed,  a  cross,  but  it  must  be  done.  How,  again, 
the  religious  women  of  England  have  allowed  such  things  to  be,  I  can  not 
tell. 

Women,  of  course,  have  not  the  parliamentary  franchise  yet  in  England, 
but  I  do  not  choose  to  speak  to-night  about  the  voting  power  which  they 
have,  because  that  will  be  ably  placed  before  you  on  Saturday  night  by  one 
of  our  English  delegates,  whom  I  deem  it  an  honor  to  call  my  friend,  Mrs. 
Ashton  Dilke.  I  want  to  say  here,  perhaps,  what  Mrs.  Dilke  would  not  like 
to  say  for  herself — what  sort  of  constituency  it  is  that  has  sent  her  among 
you.     It  is  the  constituency  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne — a  constituency  renowned 


Legal  Conditions.  237 

for  its  advanced  thought  and  for  its  vigorous  progressiveness  and  sound  liberal- 
ism. Mrs.  Dilke's  husband  had  the  honor  to  represent  this  constituency  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  these  vigorous  people  have  felt  themselves  honored 
in  choosing  Mrs.  Dilke  and  very  proud  to  send  her  over  to  America  as  their 
representative,  and  I  must  say  that  she  is  an  able  woman.  I  have  some 
right  to  speak  for  the  north  of  England,  and  wherever  I  have  been  I  found 
that  the  men  there  honor  Mr.  Ashton  Dilke,  as  do  the  women  of  the  north  the 
name  of  Mrs.  Dilke,  as  well  they  may.  And  I,  for  one,  deem  my  country 
most  fortunate  that  it  has  secured  so  charming  and  able  a  representative  to 
come  over  to  America,  to  this  great  Council. 

When  people  tell  you  to  leave  politics  alone,  do  not  listen.     A  nation,  or 
any  section  of  a  nation,  that  leaves  politics  alone  is  doomed.     We  must  at- 
tend to  politics,  and  we  must  not  say  that  because  we  have  not  done  so  in  the 
past  that,  therefore,  we  can  not  now.     Let  me  give  you  that  beautiful  thought 
of  your  own  great  poet,  James  Russell  Lowell,  who  is  so  well  known  in  our 
English  homes,  and  who  gives  inspiration  to  the  hearts  of  many  of  us  : 
"  New  occasions  teach  new  duties, 
Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth  ; 
They  must  upward  be  and  onward 

Who  would  keep  abreast  of  Truth. 
Lo !  her  camp-fires  gleam  before  us ; 

We  ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be— 
Launch  our  Mayflower, 
And  steer  right  boldly 

On  the  tempestuous,  wintry  sea, 
Nor  attempt  the  future's  portals 
With  the  past's  blood-rusted  kev." 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  present  one  who  will  talk  to  you  of  our  native- 
born  people,  the  Indians — Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher,  whom  you  all  know  and  love 
and  want  to  hear. 

THE   LEGAL   CONDITIONS    OF    INDIAN   WOMEN. 

Miss  Fletcher.  The  popular  impression  concerning  Indian  women  is, 
that  they  are  slaves,  possessing  neither  place,  property,  nor  respect  in  the 
tribe.  This  impression  is  confirmed  by  observing  that  women  are  the  work- 
ers and  the  burden-carriers;  that  upon  them  falls  all  the  drudgery  of  life. 
They  are  also  said  to  be  bought  and  sold  as  wives,  and  their  life  is  without 
honor  or  happiness.  In  the  face  of  this  generally  accepted  picture  of  the 
Indian  woman,  I  can  hardly  hope  to  greatly  modify  this  opinion  by  the  state- 
ment of  facts.  I  must,  therefore,  ask  you  to  receive  what  I  say  as  from  one 
who,  having  lived  among  the  people,  sharing  their  poverty  in  summer  and 
in  winter,  has  thus  learned  their  social  and  religious  customs. 

The  Indian  tribe  is  not  a  mere  collection  of  men  and  women  ;  it  is  a  com- 
pletely organized  body,  girt  about  by  laws,  unwritten,  it  is  true,  but  rooted 
in  the  religion  and  time-honored  customs  of  the  people.  The  tribe  is  divided 
into  clans  or  gens,  each  division  having  its  location  in  the  camp,  and  duties 
in  the  tribe.     These  clans  are  organized  and  subdivided,  having  appropri- 


238  International  Council  of  Women. 

ate  officers  to  fulfill  their  rites  and  customs.  These  clans  are  based  upon 
kinship,  and  are  the  fundamental  units  of  the  tribe.  A  man  is  born  into  his 
clan,  into  this  family  of  kindred.  In  a  large  proportion  of  our  Indian 
tribes  the  mother  carries  the  clan—  that  is,  the  man  belongs  to  the  clan  or 
kindred  of  his  mother,  not  to  that  of  his  father.  It  is  a  general  law  among 
a  large  portion  of  the  tribes  that  a  man  may  not  marry  in  his  own  clan. 
The  family,  as  we  understand  it,  can  not  exist  in  the  tribe,  as  the  husband 
and  wife  represent  two  distinct  political  bodies,  so  to  speak,  which  can  never 
coalesce,  for  neither  the  man  nor  the  woman  by  marrying  lose  or  change  any 
of  their  rights  in  their  respective  clans.  There  are  no  family  names  in  an 
'Indian  tribe.  Of  course,  I  do  not  refer  to  the  customs  which  have  been 
introduced  by  our  race  in  many  of  the  tribes,  but  to  the  native  conditions 
unmodified  by  the  white  man,  which  conditions  are  to-day  more  or  less  potent 
in  every  Indian  community. 

The  man  is  given  in  his  infancy  one  of  the  names  belonging  to  his  clan. 
These  names  are  generally  mythologic  in  their  origin.  He  frequently  takes 
other  names  later  in  life,  marking  his  career,  but  he  never  forgets  or  loses  his 
clan  name.  The  woman  is  similarly  named,  and  bears  her  birthright  name 
to  her  grave.  Her  children,  if  the  clan  follows  the  mother,  are  given  names 
proper  to  her  clan,  and  are  identified  with  her  kindred  and  not  with  that  of 
their  father.  The  child  is  never  the  heir  of  both  his  parents,  since  the  claim  of 
the  clan  into  which  he  is  born  is  primal,  and  that  of  the  family,  as  we  know  it, 
secondary.  For  the  same  reason  the  wife  never  becomes  entirely  under  the  con- 
trol of  her  husband.  Her  kindred  have  a  prior  right,  and  can  use  that  right  to 
separate  her  from  him  or  to  protect  her  from  him,  should  he  maltreat  her.  The 
brother  who  would  not  rally  to  the  help  of  his  sister  would  become  a  by-word 
among  his  clan.  Not  only  will  he  protect  her  at  the  risk  of  his  life  from  insult 
and  injury,  but  he  will  seek  help  for  her  when  she  is  sick  and  suffering. 
When  I  last  saw  the  Sun  Dance,  one  of  the  young  men  who  went  through 
all  the  tortures  did  it  to  redeem  a  vow  he  had  made  when  his  sister  lay  ill. 
At  that  time  he  went  out  of  her  lodge,  and,  lifting  his  hand  to  the  sun,  he 
promised  that  if  she  might  recover  he  would  tie  his  body  to  the  tree  and  suffer 
for  her.  The  woman  never,  from  her  birth  to  her  death,  is  without  the  strong 
protecting  arm  of  her  kindred,  to  whom  she  can  appeal  in  the  case  of  injury. 
This  is  the  general  law.  There  are,  however,  circumstances  in  which  a 
woman  loses  by  her  own  act  this  right  of  appeal  to  her  kindred,  and  there 
is  in  some  tribes  a  strong  superstition  concerning  witchcraft,  from  the 
dread  suspicion  of  which  there  is  no  more  protection  for  the  Indian  accused, 
than  there  was  for  our  own  ancestors  not  many  centuries  ago. 

In  marriage  trie  woman,  as  a  rule,  is  free  to  choose  her  husband  if  she  so 
desires.  Whether  or  no  she  is  forced  to  marry  a  man  against  her  will  to 
gratify  her  family,  depends  upon  the  individual  woman.  Sti1!,  matches  are 
made  all  the  world  over.     The  gifts  made  by  the  man  to  the  family  of  his 


Legal  Conditions.  239 

wife  are  not  a  price  paid  for  her,  but  the  recognition  of  certain  claims  and 
demands  upon  him.  The  equivalent  of  these  gifts  is  returned  to  the  wife, 
within  a  few  months  after  her  marriage,  by  her  father  or  near  of  kin.  Cus- 
tom demands  that  the  man  should  serve  his  father-in-law  for  a  few  years 
prior  to  setting  up  a  separate  establishment.  Should  the  husband  prove 
tyrannical  or  lazy  in  providing  for  his  family,  the  wife  tells  him  to  go  back 
to  his  kindred,  or  if  the  pair  are  living  in  a  lodge  apart  from  her  family  she 
takes  down  the  lodge  and  departs,  leaving  her  husband  to  watch  the  dying 
embers  of  the  fire.  Her  kindred  will  not  send  her  back,  nor  would  her 
husband  be  allowed  to  coerce  her  to  live  with  him. 

It  is  true  that  Indian  women  are  the  laoorers  and  burden-bearers.  That 
is  not  because  they  are  slaves,  but  because  they  belong  to  the  non-combatant 
portion  of  society.  All  that  part  of  any  society  which  is  not  demanded  for 
war  is  more  or  less  engaged  in  labor.  This  is  true  among  us,  but  the  line  is 
not  drawn  on  sex.  We  set  aside  a  class  of  men  to  defend  us  by  arms,  another 
class  to  defend  us  by  laws,  still  another  to  execute  the  law,  and  so  on  ;  the 
remainder  are  employed  in  the  industries  and  arts  of  peace.  These  labors 
are  shared  by  both  sexes  and  do  not  belong  to  women  alone,  because  our 
society  has  become  co-ordinated.  In  the  Indian  tribe  you  see  a  much  sim- 
pler form  of  society. 

No  international  courtesy  or  law  holds  tribes  in  peace  or  neutrality,  and, 
until  within  a  few  years,  every  Indian  village  or  camp  was  hourly  in  danger 
of  war  parties.  The  Indian  man  had  to  sleep  on  his  arms,  to  be  ready  at  any 
instant  to  defend  his  mother  and  sisters,  his  wife  and  children.  This  con- 
dition of  affairs  made  it  impossible  for  the  Indian  to  become  a  laborer,  and 
to  this  was  added  the  necessity  of  hunting  to  procure  meat  and  clothing. 
The  Indian  man  was  the  sole  provider  and  protector,  and  the  Indian 
woman  the  conservor,  of  the  home.  He  must  ride  free  that  he  may  strike 
the  needed  game  or  the  dreaded  enemy.  He  could  not  be  hampered  by  the 
impedimenta  of  family  bundles  and  burdens.  Since  all  men  were  needed  to 
protect  all  women  and  children,  to  the  women  fell  the  ax,  the  hoe,  and  the 
burden-strap,  and,  as  a  logical  consequence,  all  the  property  belonged  to  the 
women. 

In  olden  times  the  women  claimed  the  land.  In  the  early  treaties  and 
negotiations  for  the  sale  of  land,  the  women  had  their  voice,  and  the  famous 
Chief  Cornplanter  was  obliged  to  retract  one  of  his  bargains  because  the 
women  forbade,  they  being  the  land-holders,  and  not  the  men.  With  the 
century,  our  custom  of  ignoring  women  in  public  transactions  has  had  its 
reflex  influence  upon  Indian  custom.  At  the  present  time  all  property  is  per- 
sonal ;  the  man  owns  his  own  ponies  and  other  belongings  which  he  has  per- 
sonally acquired ;  the  woman  owns  her  horses,  dogs,  and  all  the  lodge  equip- 
ments ;  children  own  their  own  articles,  and  parents  do  not  control  the 
possessions  of  their  children.    There  is  really  no  family  property,  as  we  use 


240  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  term.  A  wife  is  as  independent  in  the  use  of  her  possessions  as  is  the 
most  independent  man  in  our  midst.  If  she  chooses  to  give  away  or  sell  all 
of  her  property,  there  is  no  one  to  gainsay  her. 

When  I  was  living  with  the  Indians,  my  hostess,  a  fine  looking  woman, 
who  wore  numberless  bracelets,  and  rings  in  her  ears  and  on  her  fingers,  and 
painted  her  face  like  a  brilliant  sunset,  one  day  gave  away  a  very  fine  horse. 
I  was  surprised,  for  I  knew  there  had  been  no  family  talk  on  the  subject,  so  I 
asked:  "Will  your  husband  like  to  have  you  give  the  horse  away  ?  "  Her 
eyes  danced,  and,  breaking  into  a  peal  of  laughter,  she  hastened  to  tell  the 
story  to  the  other  women  gathered  in  the  tent,  and  I  became  the  target  of 
many  merry  eyes.  I  tried  to  explain  how  a  white  woman  would  act,  but 
laughter  and  contempt  met  my  explanation  of  the  white  man's  hold  upon  his 
wife's  property. 

It  has  been  my  task  to  explain  to  the  Indian  woman  her  legal  conditions 
under  the  law.  In  bringing  our  legal  lines  down  upon  her  independent  life 
I  have  been  led  to  realize  how  much  woman  has  given  of  her  own  freedom 
to  make  the  strong  foundation  of  the  family  and  to  preserve  the  accumula- 
tion and  descent  of  property.  All  this  was  necessary,  that  the  pressure  of 
want  should  be  removed,  time  for  mental  culture  secured,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  civilization  made  possible  to  the  race — a  sacrifice  needful,  but 
nevertheless  a  sacrifice.  As  I  have  tried  to  explain  our  statutes  to  Indian 
women,  I  have  met  with  but  one  response.  They  have  said:  "As  an  In- 
dian woman  I  was  free.  I  owned  my  home,  my  person,  the  work  of  my  own 
hands,  and  my  children  could  never  forget  me.  I  was  better  as  an  Indian 
woman  than  under  white  law."  Men  have  said:  "Your  laws  show  how 
little  your  men  care  for  their  women.  The  wife  is  nothing  of  herself.  She 
is  worth  little  but  to  help  a  man  to  have  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres." 
One  day,  sitting  in  the  tent  of  an  old  chief,  famous  in  war,  he  said  to  me  : 
' '  My  young  men  are  to  lay  aside  their  weapons ;  they  are  to  take  up  the  work  of 
the  women;  they  will  plow  the  field  and  raise  the  crops;  for  them  I  see  a 
future,  but  my  women,  they  to  whom  we  owe  everything,  what  is  there  for 
them  to  do?  I  see  nothing!  You  are  a  woman;  have  pity  on  my  women 
when  everything  is  taken  from  them."  Not  only  does  the  woman  under  our 
laws  lose  her  independent  hold  on  her  property  and  herself,  but  there  are 
offenses  and  injuries  which  can  befall  a  woman  which  would  be  avenged  and 
punished  by  the  relatives  under  tribal  law,  but  which  have  no  penalty  or 
recognition  under  our  laws.  If  the  Indian  brother  should,  as  of  old,  defend 
his  sister,  he  would  himself  become  liable  to  the  law  and  suffer  for  his  cham- 
pionship. 

I  have  been  considering  strictly  the  legal  conditions  of  Indian  women  under 
tribal  and  under  our  own  laws.  I  have  not  touched  upon  customs  which 
bear  heavily  upon  them.  Many  of  these  customs  can  not  be  reached  by 
the   law.     Their   amelioration    must   depend  upon  other  influences  which 


Legal  Conditions.  241 

it  is  the  function  of  Christian  philanthropy  to  exercise.  I  would  have 
you,  my  friends  and  sisters,  take  pity  on  the  Indian  woman.  Her  oki- 
time  individual  independence  is  gone.  She  has  fallen  under  the  edge 
of  our  laws — an  edge  few  of  us  have  ever  felt.  We  do  not  live  under 
the  letter  of  the  law,  but  in  the  midst  of  a  growing,  broadening  Christian 
spirit  that  is  each  year  making  its  mark  upon  our  statute-books  and  empha- 
sizing the  right  of  every  human  being  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness. Meanwhile  our  Indian  sisters  are  called  to  enter  our  civilization, 
and  for  them  the  path  is  full  of  difficulty  and  hardship.  They  must  lose 
much  they  hold  dear  and  suffer  wrongs  at  the  hands  of  those  whose  added 
legal  powers,  when  untempered  by  an  unselfish,  cultured  spirit,  makes  the 
legal  conditions  of  woman  akin  to  the  crudest  slavery.  I  crave  for  my  Indian 
sisters,  your  help,  your  patience,  and  your  unfailing  labors,  to  hasten  the  day 
when  the  laws  of  all  the  land  shall  know  neither  male  nor  female,  but  grant 
to  all  equal  rights  and  equal  justice.  . 

Miss  Anthonv.  Now,  friends,  we  have  had  at  the  Riggs  House  during 
the  last  week  one  of  the  race  about  which  Miss  Fletcher  has  been  talking — 
an  Indian — Princess  Viroqua.  She  is  here  on  the  platform,  and,  since  we 
are  representatives  of  all  nationalties  and  all  people,  I  want  her  to  step  for- 
ward and  let  you  look  at  a  native-born  Indian. 

Princess  Viroqua.  Madam  president,  ladies,  and  gentlemen :  I  am  truly 
glad  to  be  allowed  to  stand  on  this  platform  with  these  great  ladies,  of  whom 
I  have  read  as  long  ago  as  I  can  remember. 

Miss  Anthony.  The  next  speech  will  be  from  Mrs.  Matilda  Joslyn  Gage. 
Dr.  Ruth  M.  Wood,  who  is  on  the  programme  to-night,  will  be  heard  to- 
morrow morning,  and  as  she  has  had  a  large  experience  in  her  profession, 
she  will  be  able  to  tell  us  much  on  the  question  of  social  purity. 

Mrs.  Matilda  Joslyn  Gage  followed  in  an  able  speech  on 
''Law  in  the  Family,"  which  is  omitted,  at  her  request,  as  she 
desired  all  the  space  allowed  her  to  be  reserved  for  what  she 
said  in  the  Religious  Symposium.  In  her  judgment  that  phase 
of  the  question,  at  this  stage  in  woman's  development,  is  more 
important  for  consideration  than  the  legal  or  political. 

Miss  Anthony.  It  is  with  great  satisfaction  I  now  present  to  you  a  woman 
who  was  a  very  rebellious  student  in  Oberlin  College.  In  the  early  days  of 
that  venerable  institution,  girls  were  not  allowed  to  read  their  own  orations, 
that  service  being  invariably  performed  by  one  of  the  "  superior  sex."  This 
rule  was  very  exasperating  to  the  girls  of  the  graduating  class,  and  the  one 
about  to  address  you  put  her  foot  down,  that  if  she  were  not  permitted  to 
deliver  her  own  oration  no  man  should.  She  is  here  to-day — a  delegate 
from  the  American  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone. 

Mrs.  Stone.     All  the  addresses  of  the  evening,  except   Miss  Fletcher's 


242  International  Council  of  Women. 

about  the  Indians,  have  been  devoted  to  showing  how  unequal  everywhere 
are  the  conditions  of  women  as  compared  with  those  of  men.  If  that  idea 
can  only  be  made  to  take  a  firm  lodgment  in  people's  minds,  this  evening's 
meeting  should  lead  to  many  vital  changes.  Yesterday  a  little  item  cut  from 
a  newspaper,  with  a  pencilled  note,  was  handed  to  me,  asking  what  it 
meant.  The  newspaper  slip  said,  in  substance,  that  in  Massachusetts,  where 
women  have  the  right  to  vote  for  school  committee,  out  of  so  many  thousands 
of  them  who  are  old  enough  to  vote,  and  might  vote  if  they  chose,  only  about 
three  thousand  voted.     The  note  asked  how  this  could  be  explained. 

I  should  like  to  ask  the  reporters  to  pay  attention  to  this,  because  there 
have  been  so  many  misrepresentations  about  the  school  vote  of  women  in 
Massachusetts.  Our  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Pierce,  has  made  an  official 
report  year  after  year,  and  there  have  been  very  serious  mistakes  in  it.  His 
report  is  based  upon  the  reports  made  to  him  by  the  town  clerks  as  to  the 
number  of  women  voting  in  each  town.  In  1885,  the  town  clerk  of  Milford, 
in  Worcester  County,  published  a  certified  statement,  giving  the  number  of 
women  who  had  registered  and  voted  in  Milford  during  the  three  years  preced- 
ing. According  to  this  certified  statement,  nearly  five  times  as  many  women  had 
voted  in  Milford  alone  as  were  declared  by  Secretary  Pierce's  report  to  have 
voted  in  the  whole  county.  On  investigation,  it  was  found  that  every  year, 
for  three  years,  the  number  of  women  voting  in  the  city  of  Worcester  had 
been  set  down  in  the  official  report  as  the  number  voting  in  the  county  of 
Worcester.  After  this,  the  church  in  Secretary  Pierce's  town  gave  a  sociable, 
and  it  was  announced  that  the  gentlemen  would  cook  the  supper,  and  that 
Secretary  Pierce  would  contribute  a  pie.  Some  sarcastic  person  said  that  if 
his  pie  were  as  badly  cooked  as  his  figures,  it  would  not  be  a  very  good  pie. 
I  do  not  suppose  there  was  any  intention  to  misrepresent,  but  a  serious  mistake 
of  that  kind,  repeated  for  three  years  running,  certainly  shows  carelessness 
somewhere. 

I  think  that  deep  down  in  the  heart  of  every  man  there  is  a  sense  of  loy- 
alty to  wofnan.  They  do  not  want  to  hurt  us  nor  to  do  us  an  injustice  ;  but 
they  do  not  think.  They  were  born  under  the  old  common  law  and  edu- 
cated by  it.  When  the  child  was  born,  and  the  question  was  asked  whose 
child  it  was,  the  old  common  law  said  it  was  the  father's  child ;  and  when  it 
came  to  marriage,  the  law  gave  the  property  of  the  wife  to  the  husband.  The 
laws  have  been  changed  ;  they  have  been  made  better,  infinitely  better,  but 
we  have  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  getting  the  changes  made.  I  remem- 
ber how  many  years  we  asked  that  married  women  might  have  a  right  to 
their  own  clothes.  It  took  us  eleven  years  to  get  that  law  changed.  Then 
we  asked  that  widows  might  have  a  right  to  be  buried  in  the  family  lot ;  and 
how  many  years  it  took  us  to  get  that !  But  we  got  it.  And  so  on,  one 
thing  after  another  has  been  gained  ;  but  I  hope  no  man  will  please  himself 
by  thinking  we  have  now  got  all  we  want. 


Legal  Conditions.  243 

I  remember  a  little  incident  which  illustrates  very  well  the  position  of 
women  in  the  family  under  the  law.  I  was  driving  into  Boston  one  day  in 
the  early  gray  of  the  morning,  and  about  two  miles  from  the  city  a  little  street 
gamin  ran  up  and  asked  for  a  ride.  My  heart  always  warms  to  children, 
and  I  said,  "  Yes."  He  climbed  in,  and  I  said,  "  Where  are  you  going  so 
early  in  the  morning?"  He  said,  "  I  build  the  fire  every  morning  in  a  store 
on  Devonshire  street,  and  I  have  to  go  early,  but  I  'most  always  get  a  ride. 
I  ask  them,  and  somebody  'most  always  takes  me  up."  Pretty  soon  he 
began  to  tell  me  all  about  his  family.  He  said  :  "  My  mother  gets  up  early, 
and  builds  the  fire  and  gets  my  breakfast,  and  gets  me  up  and  sends  me  off. 
Then  she  gets  my  father's  breakfast,  and  gets  him  up  and  sends  him  off. 
Then  she  gets  the  breakfast  for  my  little  brothers  and  sisters,  and  sends  them 
off  to  school,  and  then  when  they  have  gone  she  and  the  baby  have  their 
breakfast."  I  said,  "How  many  are  there  of  you?"  He  said,  "There 
are  ten  children  of  us;"  and  he  added  proudly,  "The  baby  can  walk  as 
well  as  I  can."  I  said,  "  How  much  pay  do  you  get  for  going  into  the  city 
so  early  and  making  this  fire  ?"  "I  get  $2  a  week."  "  How  much  does 
your  father  get?  "  He  gets  $2  a  day."  "And  how  much  does  your  mother 
get?"  The  little  fellow  looked  bewildered  as  he  turned  his  childish  eyes  up 
to  my  face  and  said,  "Why,  she  don't  work  for  anybody."  "  Why,"  said 
I,  "  I  thought  you  said  she  worked  for  all  of  you."  "  Oh,  yes,  for  us,  she 
does,"  he  said,  "  but  there  ain't  no  money  into  it." 

That  little  boy  told  the  case  as  it  is.  Into  that  family  he  brought  his  $2 
a  week,  and  the  father  brought  his  $12  a  week,  and  doubtless  they  made 
the  best  of  it  they  could,  and  shared  their  poverty  together ;  and  so 
it  often  is  among  those  who  are  richer,  they  share  what  they  have 
and  do  the  best  they  can.  Yet,  after  all,  the  woman  stands,  whether 
she  is  the  wife  of  a  rich  man  or  a  poor  man,  in  the  same  place.  For 
her,  there  is  "no  money  in  it."  The  law  can  take  no  measure  of 
those  finer  compensations  that  are  not  counted  by  gold,  but  here  the  law 
counts  the  woman  as  earning  nothing  and  having  nothing  of  her  own. 
Mothers  of  families  are  classed  in  the  census  among  "non-producers." 
Every  man  thinks  he  supports  his  wife,  and  very  likely  that  man  whose  wife 
got  the  boy  his  breakfast  and  the  father  his  breakfast,  and  took  care  of  them 
all,  thought  he  supported  her.  Perhaps  he  thought  she  did  her  part  well  and 
was  grateful  to  her.  But  what  we  want  is  to  root  out  of  the  world  the  idea 
that  the  part  the  woman  contributes  to  the  family  is  not  as  valuable  as  the 
man's  part.  If  a  man  has  sheep  or  cattle  on  a  ranch,  he  pays  a  man  what 
it  is  worth  to  take  care  of  them.  But  when  the  mother  watches  over  the 
children  her  labor  is  reckoned  as  having  no  value.  I  well  remember  how 
my  mother  took  care  of  us  children,  perhaps  in  twenty  years  not  having  a 
night  of  sound  sleep ;  how  well  I  remember  her  hand  stretched  out  to  me  in 
the  trundle-bed  to  see  if  I  was  sleeping,  and  how  well  I  remember  her  going 


244  International  Council  of  Women. 

in  the  night  into  another  room  to  see  if  all  was  right  with  the  children  there  ! 
Through  all  those  years,  how  she  watched  over  us  in  sickness  and  in  health, 
caring  for  our  food  and  clothes,  our  morals  and  our  manners  !  When  a 
woman  engages  in  this  high  service  it  ought  not  to  be  for  her  a  poverty- 
stricken  condition.  It  ought  to  make  her  the  sharer  of  the  income  and  of 
the  property  interest,  that  she  may  be  really  a  queen  in  her  home  and  the 
equal  of  her  husband. 

Women  have  no  right  to  trial  by  a  jury  of  their  peers  ;  we  may  be  impris- 
oned, fined,  or  hanged,  and  we  have  no  power  to  say  anything  about  it.  A 
little  girl  from  her  cradle  up  to  womanhood,  whether  it  is  a  dollar  she  has 
earned  and  wishes  to  spend,  or  a  deed  she  wishes  to  make,  finds  everything 
settled  for  her  by  the  law,  without  her  having  any  voice  in  it,  as  if  she  were 
an  idiot.  There  is  not  a  man  living  who  would  be  willing  to  be  in  such  a 
position  under  the  law  as  a  woman  is  in  ;  he  would  be  stricken  with  horror 
to  think  of  being  in  a  place  where  all  his  interests  were  settled  for  him  by 
some  one  else.  Oh,  men  ;  noble,  generous  men  !  there  is  not  one  of  you 
who  should  not  try  to  make  a  public  sentiment  which  shall  change  these  laws* 
and  make  them  as  just  to  women  as  they  are  to  you.  To-day,  when  your 
daughter  marries,  and  you  send  her  out  from  your  home,  your  blessing  going 
with  her,  you  hope  her  husband  will  be  kind  and  noble ;  yet  remember 
that  if  he  is  kind  to  her,  the  law  is  not.  In  Massachusetts,  and  most  of 
the  other  States,  how  many  days  do  you  think  a  widow  may  stay  after 
her  husband's  death  in  his  house,  the  home  where  her  children  were  born 
and  reared  ?  The  law  says  she  may  stay  in  that  house  forty  days  without 
paying  rent.  Think  of  that  !  What  man  would  like  his  daughter  to  come 
-to  that?  In  Maine,  the  legislature,  at  its  last  session,  meaning  to  be 
kind  to  women,  changed  the  number  of  days  to  ninety,  instead  of  forty. 
I  heard  a  young  man  say  before  the  Woman  Suffrage  Committee  of  the 
Massachusetts  legislature,  "  I  don't'  want  my  wife  to  be  told  she  may  stay  in 
our  house  just  so  many  days  after  I  am  dead.  While  I  am  here,  my  strong  arm 
helps  to  bring  my  wife  what  she  needs.  When  I  am  dead,  and  can  not  bring 
her  anything,  I  do  not  want  the  law  to  pluck  at  her  and  leave  her  only  forty 
days  to  stay  in  the  home  where  I  have  taken  care  of  her  for  years."  There 
are  many  noble  men  who  would  say  the  same.  My  grief  is  that  they  do  not 
try  to  make  the  laws  better  for  their  daughters  and  their  wives. 

Each  class  must  look  out  for  itself  in  these  matters,  and  then  they  will  be 
looked  after.  Mrs.  Poyser  said,  "  Women  are  foolish  ;  God  almighty  made 
them  to  match  the  men."  Suppose  women  are  foolish.  There  never  yet 
was  a  woman  so  foolish  that,  when  the  law  said  she  had  no  right  to  her  chil- 
dren, the  mother,  though  she  might  be  as  timid  as  a  bird,  would  not  have 
rried  in  the  best  way  she  could,  to  assert  her  right  to  her  children. 

I  beg  for  women  the  full  right  of  citizenship,  with  the  absolute  certainty 
that  it  will  be  safe  for  women  to  excercise  that  right.     God  made  the  law 


Legal  Conditions.  245 

that  binds  the  mother  to  her  child  by  ties  that  nothing  can  obliterate.  I 
have  seen  a  woman  who  had  been  half  a  century  a  maniac,  and  during  all 
those  years  had  not  seen  her  children,  and  when,  after  fifty  years,  they  came 
back  to  her,  not  the  children  who  left  her,  but  gray-haired  men,  she  looked 
at  them,  utterly  unrecognizing  them  ;  but,  when  one  of  them  bent  down  and 
took  her  hand  in  his  and  called  her  mother,  that  woman,  a  maniac  for  half  a 
century,  gathered  the  hand  to  her  lips  and  then  to  her  heart,  while  she  strug- 
gled to  gather  up  the  scattered  threads  of  memory.  All  those  years  of  insanity 
could  not  destroy  the  maternal  instinct  utterly ;  God  took  care  of  that. 
Whoever  turns  his  heart  against  a  man,  it  is  not  his  mother.  He  may 
commit  crime,  defy  human  laws  ;  he  may  be  so  bad  a  man  that  his  wife  fears 
him  and  his  children  flee  from  him,  and  the  law  may  be  searching  for  him, 
but  if  he  comes  to  the  old  hearthstone  where  his  mother  sits — she  is  where 
she  used  to  sit,  waiting  for  him — and  if  he  comes  home  to  her  stained  with 
crime  she  is  still  his  mother,  and  she  opens  her  arms  wide  and  says :  "  Poor 
fellow,  by  so  much  the  more  as  everybody  else  shuts  you  out,  by  so  much  the 
more  will  I  take  you  in."  And  so  she  does,  and  so  do  all  the  other  mothers  ; 
and  it  is  because  this  eternal  law  binds  the  mother  and  the  child. 

And  whenever  a  question  comes  up  as  to  whether  there  shall  be  houses  of 
prostitution,  or  gambling  saloons  or  drinking  places,  the  first  question  the 
mother  asks  is,  "  Will  it  make  the  town  a  safe  place  for  my  sons  and 
daughters?"  She  thinks  what  will  be  safe  for  them  will  be  safe  for  her.  God 
never  made  a  mother  yet  who  didn't  a  hundred  times  think  what  would  be 
good  for  her  children  before  she  thought  once  of  what  would  be  good  for 
herself.  Mothers  must  always  be  the  conservative  forces  of  the  world  by 
the  very  fact  that  they  are  mothers.  Oh,  men,  help  them  into  power  that 
they  may  aid  in  making  the  laws,  and  let  us  all  try  together  as  mutual 
helpers  in  this  matter. 

Miss  Anthony.  Remember,  friends,  to-morrow  afternoon  Mrs.  Cleve- 
land gives  us  a  reception  at  the  White  House.  The  delegates  to  the  Coun- 
cil, invited  speakers,  and  officers  of  the  Association  will  report  at  the  Riggs 
House  at  half-past  three,  that  we  may  go  in  a  body  to  pay  our  respects  to 
the  wife  of  the  President. 

The  Council  is  now  adjourned  until  10  o'clock  to-morrow  morning. 


FRIDAY,  MARCH  30,  1888. 


MORNING  SESSION— FOR  WOMEN  ALONE 


SOCIAL    PURITY. 

Elizabeth  Boynton  Harbert,  Vice-President  of  the  National 
Woman  Suffrage  Association  for  Illinois,  presiding.  Invoca- 
tion by  Martha  McClellan  Brown.  After  the  singing  of  the 
hymn,  "Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,"  Mrs.  Harbert  made  the 
opening  address. 

A    NEW   CRUSADE. 

Mrs.  Harbert.  Amid  the  harmony  of  this  historic  week  let  us  hope  the 
discordant  note,  "America  for  American?,"  has  been  forever  lost ;  while,  in 
lieu  thereof,  the  daughters  of  many  lands  take  up  the  thrilling  chorus  of  our 
illustrious  forefathers,  "America  for  the  oppressed;"  while  we  would  also 
breathe  the  benediction  of  our  beloved  Lucretia  Mott,  "  Truth  for  authority, 
not  authority  for  truth." 

Dearly  beloved  delegates  from  the  Mother  Country  and  the  Old  World, 
you  are  welcome  home  to  this  country  made  for  you  and  for  us  by  the 
patriots  of  the  world.  Surely  the  daughters  of  India,  France,  England,  Ire- 
land, Denmark,  Finland,  and  Norway  have  chartered  rights  in  a  republic 
where  equality  is  made  possible  by  the  lofty  principles  of  our  patriotic  fathers. 

Truly, ' '  the  place  whereon  we  stand  is  holy  ground, ' '  and  if  any  one  moment 
can  be  supreme,  when  each  is  divine,  to  such  a  moment  have  we  come,  and  I 
am  confident  that  could  our  united  thoughts  be  voiced  as  we  approach  the 
discussion  of  this  momentous  question — social  purity — it  would  be  a  strong 
desire  that  we  might  so  radiate  the  light  of  truth  that  we  could  "  speak  to 
the  people,  and  they  would  move  forward."  We  are  here  in  search  of 
foundation  principles  on  which  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of  a  new  civilization  ; 
to  aid  in  establishing  a  government  of  the  people;  to  make  over  the  bach- 
eloric  apartments  of  state  into  a  national  home,  where  there  shall  be  responsi- 
bility and  opportunity  for  mothers;  hence,  greater  comfort  for  fathers,  and, 
as  a  result  of  joint  parental  endeavor,  protection  and  equal  rights  for  the 
children.  While  men  continue  to  hold  the  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual 
powers  of  woman  as  unworthy  of  equal  recognition  with  their  own,  in  church 
and  state,  they  and  their  sons  will  lightly  esteem   her  happiness  and  honor. 

Do  my  words  seem  harsh  ?  I  would  that  they  were  untrue.  But  turn  to  the 
laws  and  compare  the  punishment  meted  out  to  betrayer  and  betrayed,  and 
tell  me  if  I  speak  untruly.     We  may  flood  the  world  with  petitions  and 


Social  Purity.  247 

pledges,  burden  the  air  with  sighs  and  tears,  but  woman  will  not  become  a 
true  helpmeet  for  man  until  she  is  everywhere  recognized,  and  motherhood 
and  fatherhood  held  equally  sacred.  Woman  can  never  give  birth  to  the 
highest  type  of  children  until  she  is  free  to  develop  her  own  powers.  We 
all  love  and  honor  womanly  women  as  we  do  manly  men,  but  we  have  never 
yet  known  a  truly  womanly  woman — a  woman  perfectly  free  to  develop  her 
own  powers;  never  have  known  a  woman  whose  education,  conscience,  and 
creed  have  not  been  influenced  by  laws  made  by  men  ;  and,  since  the  univer- 
sal testimony  of  our  brothers  is  that  "  woman  is  a  conundrum  " — an  enigma, 
an  unknowable  being — is  it  not  fair  to  conclude  that  in  legislating  for  this 
enigmatical  being  our  fathers  have  sometimes  blundered  ? 

Woman,  remanded  to  the  harem,  nursery,  or  kitchen,  denied  opportunity 
and  relieved  from  responsibility,  has  become  the  victim  of  a  narrow  love  for 
toys,  trinkets,  and  jewels,  and  thereby  of  her  own  and  of  man's  passions. 
The  brave  and  true  spirits,  masculine  and  feminine,  see  and  know  that  the 
enfranchisement  of  woman  means  a  moral  uplifting  for  the  race.  The  rec-  " 
ognition  of  the  divinity  of  humanity  indicates  our  work  ;  not  revolution  or 
the  slow  process  of  evolution,  but  prompt,  loving  amelioration  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  children  is  the  watch-word  of  our  new  crusade.  Said  our  honored 
and  beloved  champion,  Wendell  Phillips:  "When  all  England  was  at  fault 
and  wandering  in  the  desert  of  a  false  philosophy  concerning  the  West  India 
question  and  African  slavery,  Elizabeth  Herrick,  with  the  true  insight  of  a 
spiritual  woman,  wrote  out  the  simple  proposition,  '  immediate,  uncondi- 
tional emancipation,'  which  solved  the  problem  and  gave  freedom  to  a  race." 
So,  to-day,  in  order  to  solve  the  questions  of  labor  and  capital,  temperance 
and  social  evil,  we  demand  the  enfranchisement  of  woman  and  immediate 
attention  to  the  condition  of  children. 

How  will  this  solve  the  problem  ?  Think  of  it.  The  children  of  this 
generation  will  be  the  sovereign  people  of  the  next.  If  the  children  of  to- 
day are  unprotected,  untrained,  unskilled,  ignorant  of  the  principles  of  the 
equal  rights  of  humanity,  then  will  the  sovereign  people  of  the  next  generation 
be  dissolute,  selfish,  ignorant,  and  their  legislation  unjust ;  but  with  all  the 
children  gathered  into  industrial  homes  and  schools,  taught  the  divine  phil- 
osophy of  the  Golden  Rule,  and  that  law  is  only  majestic  in  proportion  to 
the  truth  upon  "which  it  is  based,  a  new  civilization  will  dawn.  Think 
what  it  would  mean  to  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  if  the  thousands  of  children 
referred  to  yesterday,  could  be  released  from  factories  and  mines.  Let  it  be 
our  high  privilege  to  sound  clearly  and  distinctly  the  clarion  note  of  the  new 
crusade — the  crusade  of  the  mothers  in  behalf  of  the  neglected  children." 
Thousands  of  little  children  would  be  released  from  their  imprisonment  in 
stores  and  factories,  where  the  present  system  of  fines  and  overseership  has 
reduced  them  almost  to  slavery.  Their  work  could  be  done  by  older  persons 
far  more  able  to  enter  the  arena  of  industrial  warfare.    Think  of  it,  in  one  of 


248  International  Council  of  Women. 

our  cities,  by  an  actual  house-to-house  visitation  we  discovered,  that  only  one 
child  in  four  is  receiving  any  education.  With  these  children,  the  future  sov- 
ereigns of  the  state,  gathered  into  industrial  schools  and  homes,  could  not  the 
fathers  and  mothers  decree  that,  in  order  to  protect  them  from  being  tempted 
or  debauched  in  childhood,  no  liquor  saloon  or  house  of  ill-repute  should  be 
allowed  near  these  sacred  precincts?  What  more  sacred  shrines  could  hal- 
low a  country  than  schools  for  the  children  ?     *     *     * 

It  is  now  my  pleasure  to  welcome,  on  behalf  of  the  Council,  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  for  Tennessee, 
Elizabeth  Lisle  Saxon. 

"THE    TRUTH    SHALL    MAKE    YOU    FREE." 

Mrs.  Saxon.  A  ship  was  seen  sailing  in  the  Southern  Atlantic  and 
making  signals  of  distress.  Another  vessel  bore  down  upon  her,  and  the 
captain  called  out :  "What  is  the  matter?"  "We  are  out  of  water;  we 
are  dying  of  thirst,'"  was  the  reply.  '*  Dip  it  up;  you  are  in  the  mouth  of 
the  Amazon  River,"  shouted  the  commander.  These  men  were  perish- 
ing of  thirst,  ignorant  that  the  boundless,  fresh  water  was  all  about 
them.  The  organized  womanhood  of  the  world  is  in  the  great  expanse  of 
boundless  freedom  in  thought  and  act,  if  they  choose  to  open  their  eyes  and 
avail  themselves  of  it,  they  will  find  around  them  a  sympathizing  and  helpful 
body  of  men  and  women,  hungry  for  the  life-giving  truth  as  they  are  for 
freedom  from  sin  and  crime. 

Experiences  of  a  life  spent  in  active  work  for  my  own  sex,  convince 
me  that  the  greatest  bar  to  human  improvement  lies  in  the  false  educa- 
tion and  the  cramped  nature  of  woman  ;  in  the  shams  and  shame  that 
have  enveloped  sexual  life.  Born  in  the  midst  of  slavery,  reared  to  woman- 
hood surrounded  by  its  influences,  I  hated  it  because  of  the  conditions  in 
which  it  placed  woman.  I  saw  men  made  all  the  laws  that  controlled  the  des- 
tiny of  women  and  the  entire  life  of  the  colored  race  of  both  sexes,  and 
established,  by  their  action  and  approval,  customs  that  rendeied  it  impossible 
for  questions  touching  upon  sexual  matters  in  their  far-reaching  influence  to 
be  discussed  by  women,  and  that  everywhere  only  the  most  superficial  and 
perverted  views  were  held  by  men,  and  shame  in  all  concerning  them  by 
women. 

I  saw  that  white  men  despised  an  unchaste  woman,  but  mingled  freely 
with  corrupt  men,  while  negro  men  seemed  to  be,  by  some  law,  indifferent  to 
unchastity  in  woman,  and  they  often  acted  as  procurers  for  white  men  of 
untainted  young  girls  of  their  own  race  ;  and  slavery  was  the  cause. 

I  saw  that  where  slavery  did  not  prevail  the  ranks  of  this  most  awful  class 
had  to  be  kept  filled  with  white  women,  drawn  from  all  ranks,  and  never 
allowed  to  return  to  respectable  life  again.  Time  taught  me  that  slavery  had 
caused  this  indifference  in  negro  men  ;  their  changed  condition  has  con- 
vinced me  of  its  truth  by  seeing  that  the  negro  man  has  imitated  the  white, 
and,  by  education  and  freedom,  a  radical  change  in  woman's  views  will  be 
wrought,  and  she,  too,  will  learn  to  demand  a  higher  morality  from  man. 


Social  Purity.  249 

I  saw,  as  a  student,  that  the  Bible  allowed  both  slavery  and  concu- 
binage, and  from  pulpits  in  the  North  I  heard  slavery  defended  and  the 
Bible  quoted  to  prove  it  God-ordained ;  and  every  opponent  of  woman's 
education  and  advancement  was  drawing  his  ready  arguments  from  this 
sacred  book. 

I  turned  in  passionate  despair  to  my  father  for  an  explanation.  This  was 
his  reply  :  "  Only  through  her  own  effort  and  struggles  can  woman  be  free, 
or  her  conditions  be  changed  ;  strive  to  understand  these  evils,  and  fearlessly 
denounce  them — the  truth  alone  can  make  you  free."  I  literally  lived  in> 
Bible  pages  ;  while  one  page  enchanted  me,  another  was  to  me  almost  mad- 
dening. I  saw  that  in  Christ  woman  had  an  unfailing  friend  ;  but,  amid  the 
wild  combat  of  argument  and  censure,  I  saw  well-nigh  every  weapon  to  hold 
us  in  bondage  men  claimed  to  find  within  these  pages.  Well-nigh  all  women 
were  against  me,  and  all  men  condemned  my  views,  showing  me  with  tri- 
umphant scorn  that  the  curse  of  the  race  was  brough't  by  woman. 

Pity,  but  do  not  blame  me,  when  I  say  I  at  last  spurned  it  from  me,  crying 
it  is  a  bar,  a  curse,  a  hindrance  to  the  race.  Like  Paul  of  old,  I  can  never 
tell  how  it  came  to  me,  but  there  did  come  to  me  an  overwhelming  expe- 
rience that  carried  me,  like  a  whirlwind,  to  the  very  foot  of  the  cross.  I 
had  been  honest,  I  had  sought  light  with  weepings  and  groanings  uncounted, 
and  I  turned  to  my  Bible  with  renewed  zeal,  as  though  the  scales  had  fallen 
from  my  eyes,  and  it  glowed  with  the  light  of  the  dayspring  from  on  high. 
No  infidel  power  had  shaken  it,  and  though  to  science  it  had  yielded  its  days 
for  periods  and  that  the  sun  stood  still,  yet  in  its  spiritual  clearness,  light  and 
beauty  shone  where  cruel  dogma  alone  had  been  seen,  and  now  in  the  light 
of  contemporaneous  history,  the  most  scoffing  skeptic  sees  its  spiritual  mean- 
ing, and  can  understand  why  it  holds  its  place,  rooted  in  human  affection. 
Man's  spirit  is  mightier  than  all  else,  for  it  is  of  God.  Thought  is  more 
powerful  than  horsemen  or  chariots,  its  victories  mightier  than  those  won  by 
the  tramp  of  armed  hosts,  the  booming  of  cannon  or  shedding  of  blood. 

The  Biblical  record  opens  with  the  expressed  statement :  "In  the  begin* 
ning  God  created  man ;  male  and  female  created  he  them  and  gave  them 
dominion  over  the  earth,  to  rule  over  it,  subdue  it,  increase  and  multiply, 
and  replenish  the  earth."  In  the  fifth  chapter  the  genealogies  of  the  Adamic 
race  are  given  :  "In  the  beginning  God  created  man  ;  male  and  female 
created  he  them,  and  called  their  name  Adam. ' '  The  Bible  is  an  Eastern  book, 
written  under  Eastern  inspirations.  Moses  and  Christ  were  Eastern  men;  the 
latter  never  spoke  save  in  parables.  Between  the  first  and  the  fifth  chapters, 
comes  the  story  of  the  Adamic  fall  from  a  state  of  innocence  of  one  man 
and  one  woman,  evidently  giving  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  fall  of  the 
human  race.  In  a  history  embracing  over  two  thousand  years  the  Bible 
makes  no  reference  to  this  story  of  the  garden  and  its  consequences,  and 
since  the  coming  of  Christ  for  two  thousand  years  we  have  preached  Christ 
17 


250  International  Council  of  Women.         \ 

and  practiced  Moses,  in  all  our  dealings  with  woman — stoning  her  to  death 
and  letting  the  man  go  free. 

Reviewing  this  story  of  the  fall,  Christ  declares  he  came  to  restore  all 
things,  to  verify  the  Scriptures.  He  demanded  the  same  recognition  of  sin 
in  man  as  in  woman,  the  same  moral  law,  preached  the  first  sermon  for 
woman's  equality  before  the  law.  If  this  be  taken  away  as  non-scriptural, 
we  are  left  the  words,  "  Whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her  in 
his  heart,  hath  committed  adultery  with  her  already."  Paul  and  all  of  the 
apostles  echoed  this  sentiment  of  Christ,  demanding  "continence,  chastity, 
and  spiritual  truth  and  life." 

In  the  mascrline  interpretation  of  the  Bible  woman  has  been  largely  ig- 
nored ;  or,  as  in  this  Edenic  story,  she  has  been  used  to  bar  the  path  to 
human  progress.  The  hour  has  come.  If  in  this  chapter  lies  her  curse,  out 
of  it,  also,  comes  her  blessing  and  her  reward.  Woman  must  now  realize 
that  in  her  giving  truth  on  these  lines  alone  can  the  race  be  redeemed,  and 
Christ's  rule  of  love  begin  on  earth,  and  his  coming  be  made  a  verity. 

Only  realize  what  we  have  been  under  those  conditions  of  false  modesty 
and  ignorance  of  the  divine  law  of  life  and  all  its  possibilities.  The  Garden 
of  Eden  can  only  be  represented  showing  the  face  of  the  race  under  the 
dominion  of  lust,  using  the  vital  functions  of  life  as  a  means  of  dragging 
down  all  spirituality.  What  is  the  most  subtle  of  the  beasts  of  the  field  that 
tempted  woman?  What  is  more  subtile  than  desire?  What  thing  ever 
crawled  upon  its  belly  and  ate  dust ;  could  eat  no  spiritual  food  all  the  days 
of  its  life,  but  lust?  "I  will  put  enmity  between  thy  seed  and  her  seed. 
It  shall  bruise  thy  head,  but  thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel."  Has  not  his  heel, 
his  physical  body,  been  bruised  by  this  serpent  in  the  taint  that  is  shown  in 
scrofula,  cancer,  consumption,  and  every  hideous  disease  from  thousands  of 
centuries  of  unbridled  transmissions  of  syphilitic  poisons? 

Has  not  the  promise  rolled  down  the  ages  to  woman,  that  her  seed 
should  bruise  the  serpent's  head  ?  Will  not  the  holy  sacrifice,  the  holy 
teachings,  all  the  lifting  up  of  woman's  promised  seed,  the  Christ,  and 
the  preached  word,  show  the  promise  has  been  kept,  and  the  demand 
still  holds  a  crucifixion  of  man's  lower  nature?  Paul,  following  Jesus, 
teaches:  "They  are  Christ's  who  crucify  the  affections  with  the  lusts." 
The  donning  of  fig-leaf  aprons  was  plainly  man's  inner  and  purer  spiritual 
nature,  shrinking  and  cowering,  ashamed  before  the  brutalization  of  his 
higher  faculties — the  divine  powers  .of  procreation  perverted  to  unbridled 
license.  We  weep  with  Paul  when  he,  in  his  spiritual  warfare,  fights  "  this 
thorn  in  his  flesh,"  and  in  his  buffetings  of  Satan,  triumphs  in  the  strength  of 
Christ  over  his  own  lower  nature. 

We  have  sowed  the  wind  in  ignorance  ;  we  are  reaping  the  whirlwind  in 
divorces,  rape,  murder,  entailed  upon  children  conceived  in  lust  andgestated 
with  its  poison  in  every  vein.     I  lay  no  sacrilegious  hands  on  the  truths  of 


Social  Purity.  251 

Holy  Writ.  I  sweep  back  the  curtain  that  the  light  of  divine  love  may- 
enter  my  own  soul,  and  gladly  would  I  lay  down  life  to  make  a  firm  path  for 
younger  women.  I  could  not  die,  so  I  lived  for  women.  Then  I  boldly 
lay  the  ax  at  the  root  of  the  upas  tree  of  crime.  I  implore  you  women,  old 
and  young,  to  look  back  on  your  own  ignorance  of  all  this  law  of  human 
needs  and  realize  what  is  around  us  and  what  fruit  secrecy  has  borne.  Gather 
to  your  very  souls  the  children  in  loving  confidence.  Show  both  sons 
and  daughters  the  sanctities  and  the  terrors  of  this  awful  power  of  sex,_its 
capacities  to  bless  or  curse  its  owner  and  the  little  helpless  being  in  the 
mother's  womb.  Teach  that  the  building  of  character  begins  in  the  very 
hour  of  conception  ;  that  he  or  she  who  can  give  the  color  of  hair,  gait, 
laughter,  and  looks,  can  bequeath  the  tainted  appetites  and  low  diseases. 

Teach  that  the  holy  thought,  the  reverent  prayer,  the  dwelling  in  the  king- 
dom of  peace,  belongs  of  right  to  the  mother  builder.  The  self-sacrifice, 
the  loving  sympathy,  the  mighty  upholding  of  all  her  nature  in  this,  her 
divine  mission,  that  is  the  father's  duty.  Nature  furnishes  every  mother  a 
beautiful  lesson  for  her  children.  Why  forever  cram  with  book-lore  to  the 
exclusion  of  tender  counsel  on  lofty  possibilities?  Mothers  say,  "I  can't 
tell  my  children  these  things."  Then  some  boy  or  girl  will.  Your  Bible 
will  betray  you.  Every  child  knows  that  the  hen  lays  her  eggs.  His  nature 
and  his  innocence  sees  no  harm  in  this.  Tell  him,  as  you  show  him  the 
tiny  life-germ  in  the  egg  as  you  prepare  your  food,  that  here  is  the  unfolded 
story  of  creation  ;  show  him  that  in  just  such  shaped  and  softly-lined  rooms 
all  animal  life  cradles  in  the  mother's  body,  from  its  lowly  form  up  to  man 
walking  in  God's  image  on  earth.  Here  every  nerve  and  bone  and  muscle 
of  the  wonderful  house  God's  spirit  dwells  in  is  created — wrought  from  her 
life-blood  He  is  bone  of  her  bone,  life  of  her  life  ;  woven  into  being,  with 
every  gift  of  her  body  and  soul  consecrated  to  his  service  with  her  daily  and 
hourly  prayer,  sent  into  life  with  the  pangs  of  agony  that  bid  her  stand  in 
the  very  shadow  of  death's  wing  that  she  may  cradle  him  in  her  arms,  and 
make  for  long  months,  her  bosom  the  cup  of  his  life,  the  couch  of  his  rest, 
his  refuge  in  sorrow,  his  pillow  in  death. 

I  have  spoken  for  twelve  years  to  men  alone  and  to  women  alone,  and  to 
men  and  women  together.  I  have  spoken  to  an  audience  as  large  as  this  of 
men,  and  I  the  only  woman  in  the  room,  and  have  spoken  as  freely  as  I 
have  spoken  here.  The  men,  instead  of  going  to  the  door  when  I  was 
through,  stormed  the  platform,  and,  with  tears  running  down  their  faces, 
said,  "  Thank  God,  that  woman  has  at  last  realized  that  we  are  agonizing 
as  she  agonizes."  I  ask  that  women  who  can  consecrate  themselves  to  this 
work  will  speak  to  men  everywhere.  Oh,  my  friends,  I  implore  you  not  to 
go  out  of  this  house  and  say  they  talked  shameful  things.  I  tell  you  that 
"  the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  From  all  parts  of  Kansas  I  am  receiving 
letters   to   come   back   and   speak   on  this  question.     I  received  one  this 


252  International  Council  of  Women. 

morning  to  go  and  speak  to  a  teacher's  institute  with  over  five  hundred  stu- 
dents, saying  that  it  was  this  imperative  question  that  was  needed.  Then  I 
beg  you  throw  aside  the  garments  of  shame,  stand  erect  in  the  God-born 
majesty  of  true  womanhood,  and  dare  to  be  free  to  work  out  the  whole  great 
good. 

Mrs.  Harbert.  Surely  we  can  pay  no  higher  compliment  to  Mrs.  Anna 
Rice  Powell  than  to  state  that  she  is  the  delegate  from  the  New  York  Com- 
mittee for  the  Prevention  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice,  and  associate  editor 
of  the  Philanthropist,  published  in  New  York,  which  does  most  valiant  serv- 
ice for  social  purity. 

THE     INTERNATIONAL    FEDERATION    FOR    THE    ABOLITION   OF    STATE    REGULA- 
TION   OF   VICE. 

Mrs.  Powell.  It  has  been  said  that  the  history  of  prostitution  is  the  his- 
tory of  woman.  From  the  days  of  barbarism  f«  the  present  time,  whether 
held  as  a  slave  or  a  toy,  she  has  been  its  pitiful  victim.  It  has  been  assumed 
that  there  must  be  a  certain  portion  of  women  set  apart  for  that  lowest  form 
of  subjection — the  service  of  sensuality.  Writers  like  Lecky  have  recorded 
it  in  cold  type  that  the  virtue  of  the  favored  woman  is  safe  only  at  the 
expense  of  a  pariah  class — a  fearful  sacrifice,  indeed.  The  assumption  is  an 
insult  to  manhood  in  its  best  estate.  .  ' 

As. a  result  of  this  base  doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  social  vice  have  come 
the  efforts  to  license  it,  with  police  and  medical  supervision,  in  the  vain  at- 
tempt to  escape  its  own  penalty.  In  Continental  Europe  legalized  immo- 
rality has  existed  for  many  years,  and  the  degrading  slavery  it  imposes  upon 
victimized  women  has  been  little  understood  by  the  favored  classes.  It  is  a 
failure  in  a  sanitary  point  of  view,  as  might  have  been  expected,  and  its  re- 
sults morally  are  most  deplorable,  as  the  condition  of  the  countries  where  it 
exists  shows.  How  could  it  be  otherwise,  since  it  does  not  assume  to  check 
the  sin  of  licentiousness  itself,  only  to  provide  for  men  a  safe  indulgence 
in  it? 

In  1866-69,  tnis  system  was  introduced  into  Great  Britain  by  act  of  Par. 
liament,  ostensibly  to  protect  the  health  of  the  army  in  certain  military  dis- 
tricts. It  was  disguised  under  the  name  of  the  Contagious  Diseases  Acts, 
and  few  comprehended  the  true  character  of  the  measure  till  it  was  exposed. 
To  a  group  of  noble  men  and  women  belongs  the  honor  of  making  the  vig- 
orous resistance  to  it  which  culminated,  in  1886,  in  its  repeal.  But  it  fell  to 
the  lot  of  Mrs.  Josephine  E.  Butler,  the  wife  of  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England,  to  be  the  chosen  leader  in  this  historic  movement.  A  baptism 
of  sorrow  had  prepared  her  in  a  special  manner  for  the  needed  consecration 
of  spirit,  and  an  experience  in  rescue-work  among  sinning  women  enabled 
her  to  feel  keenly  the  deeper  degradation  to  which  it  doomed  them. 

In  the  name  of  outraged  womanhood  she  proclaimed  a  rebellion.  It  was 
hard  enough  already  for  these  outcasts  to  regain  the  lost  path  of  virtue,  since 


Social  Purity.  253 

society  never  forgives  in  women  what  it  so  readily  condones  in  men;  but 
once  registered  as  professional  prostitutes  and  subjected  to  the  indignity  of 
the  enforced  surgical  examination,  to  which,  under  the  arbitrary  police 
power  granted,  even  innocent  girls,  on  mere  suspicion,  might,  and  often 
did,  become  victims,  their  reformation  was  well-nigh  hopeless.  The  penal- 
ties imposed  were  not  for  the  sin  itself,  but  for  failure  to  comply  with  certain 
police  regulations  designed  to  protect  and  localize  it.  If  pronounced  free 
from  disease  they  were  given  a  government  permit  to  ply  their  unholy  trade 
and  tempt  men  to  share  it  by  an  assumed  sanitary  safety. 

The  only  argument  any  virtuous  person  can  offer  in  favor  of  the  system  is 
the  assumed  protection  from  the  contagion  of  disease.  Many  good  people 
have  been  honestly  led  to  encourage  it  here  as  abroad,  in  the  delusive  hope 
that  thus  the  suffering  brought  upon  innocent  wives  and  children  by  the 
transgressions  of  guilty  husbands  and  fathers  might  be  averted.  It  would 
seem  very  illogical  to  expect  to  escape  the  results  of  this  sin  by  any  treat- 
ment of  it  so  superficial ;  but  in  the  long  ago,  before  the  woman  M.  D. 
had  been  evolved,  there  had  crept  into  medical  literature  recommenda- 
tions of  this  kind,  and  so  professional  authority  was  claimed  for  it.  It  is 
an  evidence  that  it  is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone  in  the  medical  profes- 
sion. 

In  this  new  era  women  as  physicians  have  been  a  mighty  power  in  help- 
ing to  show  what  is  involved  in  such  a  system,  for  the  honor  of  motherhood 
and  the  sanctuary  of  the  home.  It  needs  to  be  studied  from  the  standpoint 
of  both  men  and  women,  with  a  goodly  faith  in  the  possibilities  of  virtue. 
To  the  many  noble  men  in  the  profession  who  so  believe,  some  of  whom 
rallied  to  Mrs.  Butler's  support  and  helped  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  what 
is  morally  wrong  can  never  be  physiologically  right,  the  women  of  all  lands 
should  give  due  honor. 

A  direct  moral  appeal  to  the  hearts  of  the  people  would  have  met  with  a 
prompt  response,  but  as  the  way  was  blocked  by  the  sophistries  of  law  and 
medicine,  the  task  imposed  was  arduous.  Then  there  was  great  difficulty  in 
treating  so  delicate  a  question  with  the  publicity  that  was  needed.  It  cost 
much  for  refined,  cultivated  women  to  meet  the  criticisms  invoked  against  them. 
Hitherto  it  had  been  thought  that  favored  women  should  not  know  of  this 
great  evil  in  the  world.  Men  might  know,  must  know,  but  it  was  for  the 
■convenience  of  those  who  wished  to  lead  a  dual  life  that  it  be  well  concealed 
from  the  general  knowledge  of  good  women. 

Undaunted  by  abuse,  misrepresentation,  and  even  threats  against  life  itself, 
Mrs.  Butler  and  her  allies  went  steadily  on  in  their  work.  Her  labors  hitherto 
had  been  private,  but  now  she  became  a  voice  for  the  voiceless,  and  from 
that  time  to  the  present  hour  she  has  borne  this  cross — "despising  the 
shame  of  having  to  speak  of  shame  " — that  she  might  plead  for  justice  for  all 
women,  irrespective  of  condition,  and  proclaim  an  equal  code  of  morals  for 


254  International  Council  of  Women. 

both  sexes.  Never  before  in  the  world's  history  had  the  system  of  pros- 
titution been  thus  aggressively  assailed.  It  seemed  to  the  worldly  wise  but  a 
futile  protest  from  a  frail  woman,  yet  we  are  beginning  to  see  what  our  own 
Mrs.  Howe  has  chronicled  with  the  poet's  touch  that,  as  an  instrument  in 
the  divine  hand,  "she  has  altered  the  course  of  the  world  "  and  set  its  cur- 
rents toward  puri»:y. 

The  conflict  was  not  alone  with  the  advocates  of  this  evil  system  of  a 
drilled  harlotry  in  England,  but  a  powerful  Continental  organization  was 
intent  upon  extending  it  over  the  whole  world.  Mrs.  Butler  went  to 
the  Continent  to  raise  a  "cry  of  conscience  "  there.  It  was,  indeed,  a 
"  Voice  in  the  Wilderness,"  as  she  called  the  pamphlet  in  which  she  set  forth 
her  appeal.  Would  that  all  who  are  still  ignorant  of  what  licensed  prosti- 
tution is  in  those  countries  where  it  has  so  long  prevailed,  might  read  for 
themselves  what  she  has  recorded  of  her  Continental  experiences  in  her  book, 
"The  New  Abolitionists."  It  is  a  cruel  slavery  for  victimized  women  where 
the  system  is  established,  and  well  did  she  choose  her  title.  The  recruiting 
traffic  in  young  girls,  which  is  one  of  the  saddest  phases  of  this  infamous 
business,  is  fitly  characterized  as  the  "  White  Slave  Trade." 

As  a  result  of  this  mission  of  Mrs.  Butler  to  the  Continent,  came  "  The 
International  Federation  for  the  Abolition  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice." 
This  organization,  composed  of  men  and  women,  is  non-sectarian  in  religion, 
non-partisan  in  politics.  Its  president  is  M.  de  Laveleye,  the  distinguished 
writer  on  political  economy,  of  Liege,  Belgium ;  its  secretaries  are  Mrs. 
Butler  and  Professor  Stuart,  M.  P.  It  holds  a  conference  annually  in  some  one 
of  the  fifteen  countries  represented  in  its  membership  \  and  every  three  years 
a  congress  is  convened  for  a  week's  deliberation  upon  the  hygienic,  moral, 
legislative,  and  other  aspects  of  the  problem  involved.  It  has  been  my 
privilege  to  attend,  as  an  American  delegate,  two  of  these  congresses,  and 
to  listen  to  the  reports  of  the  work  set  forth. 

We  think  we  have  much  to  do  here  in  America  to  establish  equal  rights 
for  women  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  but  in  contrast  with  the  conditions  in 
Continental  Europe  our  task  seems  light  indeed.  They  have  not  the  van- 
tage-ground of  years  of  agitation  for  enlarged  opportunities  for  women 
which  the  devoted  pioneers  that  we  delight  to  honor  in  this  Council  have 
given  us.  The  obstacles  they  have  to  contend  with  might  appal  less  coura- 
geous hearts.  I  bespeak  for  them  the  sympathetic  interest  of  all  American 
women  in  their  arduous  struggle  to  defend  the  rights  of  the  poor  and  victim- 
ized of  their  own  sex,  and  to  elevate  the  tone  of  public  morals.  And  I 
should  mention  also  the  loyal  men  who,  like  Professor  Humbert,  of  Switzer- 
land, and  others,  have  consecrated  themselves  to  the  cause. 

Self-interest  should  prompt  us  to  lend  our  aid.  So  many  Americans  in- 
dulge in  these  days  in  foreign  travel,  that  the  customs  of  the  Old  World  are 
in  danger  of  being  ingrafted  upon  the  new.     Many  young   men  take  their 


.  Social  Purity.  255 

first  lesson  in  social  vice  in  Paris  and  other  Continental  cities,  under  the  delu- 
sion that  the  regulated,  licensed  brothel  gives  security  from  disease,  and  a 
fatal  fallacy  has  it  proved.  The  unfortunate  confusion  of  tongues,  which 
prevents  the  literature  of  those  countries  being  easily  accessible  here,  is  a 
great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  our  active  co-operation  with  them.  If  the 
Bulletin  Continental,  the  official  organ  of  the  Federation,  were  printed  in 
English  instead  of  French,  the  knowledge  of  its  good  work  could  be  more 
easily  extended. 

The  British  branches  of  the  Federation  have  done  much  by  the  circulation 
of  literature  to  spread  the  needed  light  upon  their  cause.  Just  at  present 
they  are  working  zealously  to  expose  the  condition  of  affairs  in  their  Crown 
colonies.  Though  Great  Britain  has  gained  a  repeal  of  the  act's  applying  to 
certain  of  its  own  military  districts,  it  has  a  heavy  responsibility  to  bear 
for  fostering  impurity  and  legalized  lust  in  its  colonies.  What  must  the 
natives  of  heathen  countries  think  of  the  representatives  of  a  nation  called 
Christian,  who  provide  prostitutes  for  their  army  as  they  would  food  and  rai- 
ment !  Alfred  S.  Dyer,  editor  of  the  Sentinel,  of  London,  is  making  a  tour 
of  investigation  in  India,  and  the  reports  he  gives  of  the  conditions  there 
are  most  revolting.  They  make  one  wish  there  were  a  thousand  Ramabais 
instead  of  one,  to  open  pathways  of  independence  for  the  women  of  India, 
and  save  them  from  the  despoiler. 

We  are  indebted  to  this  International  Federation  for  sending,  in  1876,  a 
deputation  to  America,  to  warn  us  against  the  schemes  of  Regulation ists  here. 
These  delegates  were  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Gledstone,  and  the  Hon.  Henry  J. 
Wilson,  now  a  member  of  Parliament.  They  held  conferences  in  several  of 
our  large  cities,  and  in  New  York  a  branch  committee  was  organized,  of 
which  Mrs.  Abby  Hopper  Gibbons  is  president,  whose  active  sendees  have 
been  needed  the  past  twelve  years,  to  watch  and  thwart  the  persistent  efforts 
that  have  been  made  to  secure  legalized  vice  in  that  city  and  elsewhere. 
This  committee  has  distributed  a  large  amount  of  social  purity  literature,  not 
only  of  its  own,  but  many  of  the  special  publications  of  the  Federation. 

Preceding  the  date  of  this  deputation  from  England,  licensed  prostitution 
was  tried  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis  for  a  period  of  about  four  years — i87o-'74. 
The  late  Dr.  William  G.  Eliot,  and  a  band  of  brave  women  and  good  men, 
led  a  vigorous  agitation  of  resistance  to  it,  and  were  finally  victorious. 
Dr.  Eliot  has  left  on  record  in  a  valuable  pamphlet,  the  history  of  that 
experiment,  showing  that  while  it  lasted  disease  was  not  lessened  and  that 
immorality  increased.  Kindred  unsuccessful  attempts  were  made  thus  early 
to  introduce  the  odious  system  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  Cin- 
cinnati, Washington,  Baltimore,  Pittsburgh,  and  San  Francisco.  But  there 
chanced  to  be  those  who,  watchful  of  all  laws  bearing  unequally  upon 
women,  and  mindful  of  the  menace  to  public  morals,  were  prompt  to  sound 
an  alarm.     It  is  fitting  in  this  Council  to  record  the  tribute  of  thanks  due 


256  International  Council  of  Women. 

for  the  services  rendered  in  these  localities,  by  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton, 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  Lydia  Mott,  Anna  Dickinson,  Dr.  Caroline  B.  Wirislow, 
Dr.  Susan  A.  Edson,  Phcebe  W.  Couzins,  Virginia  L.  Minor,  and  others  in 
that  earlier  time. 

Though  social  vice  is  not  openly  licensed  in  this  country,  there  are  those  who 
believe  in  the  system,  and  we  have  shameful  conditions  of  immorality  which 
-should  be  cause  for  grave  concern.  Our  only  safeguard  is  in  dealing  with 
them  radically,  insisting  upon  an  equal  standard  of  virtue  for  both  sexes ; 
and  to  this  end  does  the  ultimate  influence  of  "The  International  Federa- 
tion for  the  Abolition  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice  "  tend.  In  England,  an 
outgrowth  of  it  has  been  Social  Purity  Alliances,  composed  of  adults  of 
both  sexes,  for  general  moral  education,  and  White  Cross  Leagues  for  men 
only,  to  pledge  them  to  chastity  movements  which  herald  the  general  reform 
needed. 

Since  the  shock  of  the  moral  earthquake  caused  by  Mr.  Stead's  exposures, 
which  made  the  guilty  tremble  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  well,  increased 
attention  has  been  given  to  the  subject  here.  Statute-books  have  been 
studied  to  find  what  measure  of  protection  for  virtue  is  given  by  law  to  the 
girlhood  of  America.  The  revelation  is  appalling,  and  has  convinced  many 
that  it  is  not  best  to  entrust  to  men  alone  the  legislation  for  crimes  which 
involve  so  much  for  womanhood.  Those  safely  sheltered  in  ease  and  luxury 
may  not  feel  so  keenly  the  peril  invoked  by  a  law  that  fixes  the  age  at  which 
the  little  girl  may  consent  to  her  own  ruin,  at  ten  years  ;  but  the  mother  of  toil 
and  poverty,  forced  to  send  her  daughter  out  to  service  when  scarce  in  her 
teens,  often  learns  all  too.  quickly  how  such  a  statute  shields  the  seducer  and 
assailant.  It  is  the  poor  and  the  dependent  that  are  made  a  prey.  Since 
the  recent  agitation  for  raising  the  age  of  protection  for  young  girls  began, 
encouraging  modifications  of  the  law  have  been  made  in  several  States.  But 
in  the  majority,  as  in  this  very  capital  of  the  nation,  at  the  present  time,  the 
"  age  of  consent  "  is  still  ten  years.  In  one  State,  Delaware,  it  is  seven  years. 
Only  one  State,  Kansas,  has  raised  the  age  to  eighteen,  and  we  should  be 
■content  with  nothing  less. 

In  America,  the  danger  from  the  schemes  of  the  Regulationists,  lessens  in 
proportion  as  light  is  spread  upon  this  whole  sad  problem,  and  it  is  spread- 
ing most  hopefully.  In  this  unfolding  of  woman's  era,  new  moral  forces 
are  being  called  into  active  service.  The  mother-heart  of  the  world  is  find- 
ing expression  in  many  ways,  and  it  is  to  be  a  quickening  power  in  this  , 
' ■"  latest  and  greatest  crusade  of  morals,"  which  reaches  the  deepest  root  of 
what  we  have  been  wont  to  call  the  "  Woman  Question."  Our  honored 
pioneers,  who,  through  persecution  and  ridicule,  have  voiced  the  human 
right  and  the  religious  duty  for  woman  to  share  jointly  with  man  full  oppdr- 
tunity  for  the  exercise  of  her  best  powers,  have  broken  down  the  barriers 
and  prepared  the  way  for  this  reform.     The  gathering  hosts  of  our  White 


Social  Purity.  257 

Ribbon  Army  have  given  to  us  our  Mrs.  Butler  in  the  leadership  of  Frances. 
E.  Willard,  and  are  pledged  to  guard  the  homes  of  the  nation  in  sobriety 
and  purity.  White  Cross  societies  are  beginning  to  lay  foundations  for  a 
chaste  manhood,  and  to  train  their  knights  of  the  new  chivalry  to  protect 
virtue  as  gallantly  and  sacredly  as  life  itself.  Through  all  these  regenerating 
influences  we  may  hope  to  realize  a  consecrated  fatherhood  and  mother- 
hood, that  men  and  women  together  may  reverently  strive  to  meet  their 
joint  responsibility  in.  cleansing  our  social  life  from  its  foul  stain.     So — 

"  Cast  in  a  diviner  mold, 
Let  the  new  cycle  shame  the  old." 

Mrs.  Harbert.  The  one  minor  strain  which  we  all  feel,  is  the  absence  of 
so  many  of  the  grand  women  who  have  grown  gray  in  the  service.  We  have 
an  able  paper  from  Mrs.  Josephine  Butler. 

March,  1888. 
To  the  International  Council  of  Women  at  Washington  : 

Dear  Ladies:  Being  prevented  by  domestic  circumstances  from  attending 
your  assemblies  personally,  I  am  glad  to  entrust  a  few  words  of  greeting  to 
my  dear  and  honored  friend,  Mrs.  Steward,  who  has  consented  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  at  my  earnest  request,  as  a  delegate  from  our  Ladies'  National 
Association.  That  association  was  formed  in  the  winter  of  1869,  having  for 
its  definite  aim  the  obtaining  of  the  repeal  of  the  acts  of  Parliament  of 
1 866-' 69  for  the  state  regulation  of  vice;  or,  in  other  words,  for  the  pro- 
visioning of  the  army  and  navy  (not  in  Great  Britain  alone,  but  in  our 
Indian  Empire  and  all  our  colonies)  with  selected  and  superintended  healthy 
women.  A  celibate  soldiery,  it  was  said  by  our  heathen  legislators  of  that 
day,  required  such  a  provision  as  urgently  and  as  regularly  as  they  required 
daily  rations. 

Now,  I  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  special  subject  (always  a 
mournful  and  repellant  one)  will  be  formally  brought  forward  in  your  con- 
•vention,  although  the  kindred  and  closely  allied  subject  of  personal  and 
social  purity  will  surely  be  so.  It  would,  however,  be  impossible,  for  me 
either  to  appear  at  or  write  to  your  Convention  in  the  aim  of  furnishing  a 
contribution  to  your  deliberations,  except  in  connection  with  my  own  life- 
work,  and  the  deep  convictions  which  instigated  that  life-work,  and  which 
have  become  even  more  and  more  profound  as  I  continued  in  it. 

The  committee  of  our  Ladies'  National  Association,  therefore,  strongly 
desired  that  a  delegate  should  be  selected  from  our  midst  who  had  been 
associated  in  that  work  from  an  early  period,  and  such  an  one  is  Mrs.  Steward, 
who  has  been  indefatigable  in  her  labors,  not  only  in  England,  but  in  Bel- 
gium, for  the  saviDgof  the  English  girls  bought,  stolen,  and  destroyed  under 
this  diabolical  system  of  State-protected  vice  in  that  country.  There  is  now 
a  crowd  of  younger  women  who  are  bravely  preaching  the  purity  crusade  and 
doing  excellent  vigilance  work;  but  there  are  but  few  of  the  veterans  left 


258  International  Council  of  Women. 

who  in  1869  inaugurated  the  fierce  contest  with  our  government,  the  Houses 
of  Lords  and  Commons,  the  medical  boards,  the  press,  and  the  upper  classes 
generally,  in  order  to  gain  the  abolition  of  the  vice-protecting  laws,  and  to 
assert  the  equality  of  the  moral  law  for  the  two  sexes,  as  well  as  the  dignity 
and  sacredness  of  womanhood.  Among  those  veterans  were  included  the 
names  of  Florence  Nightingale,  Harriet  Martineau,  Mary  Somerville,  Mary 
Carpenter,  and  others.  Some  are  gone  to  their  rest,  others  are  aged  and 
waiting  for  their  call  home.  Those  who  remain  work  together  still,  bound 
to  each  other  by  strong  affection  and  by  the  memory  of  past  suffering  and 
conflict  shared  together.  Of  this  group  Mrs.  Steward  is  one,  and  I  com- 
mend her  to  your  sisterly  kindness  and  hospitality. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here,  in  order  to  set  forth  the  motives  which 
drove  us  to  devote  ourselves  to  this  crusade  before  all  others,  to  quote  some 
words  which  were  drawn  from  me  at  a  great  meeting  at  Leeds  in  July,  1870. 
Some  of  us  had  been  long  working  for  the  "  higher  education  of  women." 
A  council  for  that  end  had  been  formed,  embracing  members  from  all  the 
northern  parts  of  England.  I  was  for  three  years  the  president  of  that 
council.  But  in  1870,  feeling  impelled  to  resign,  I  thought  it  right  to  give 
my  reasons  for  doing  so.  I  venture  to  give  the  words  spoken  on  that  occa- 
sion :  "  While,  therefore,  I  continue  to  regard  the  cause  of  education  as 
most  sacred,  I  come  to  the  present  meeting  with  a  saddened  heart,  and 
I  only  propose  to  relinquish  the  office  I  now  hold  because  I  feel  that  God  has 
called  me  to  a  more  painful  one.  All  members  have  not  the  same  office;  all 
are  not  called  to  descend  to  the  depths  of  woe,  to  clear  out  moral  sewers,  and 
to  cast  in  their  lot  among  wretched  slave  gangs,  in  order  to  help  the  slaves  to 
carry  the  weight  of  their  chains,  if  not  to  break  them  away.  This  work,  I 
think,  is  mine,  but  there  is  other  work  not  less  holy  and  which  aims  not  less 
directly  at  a  future  emancipation  ;  so  while  I  feel  all  the  deeper  gratitude  to 
you,  my  fellow-workers  in  this  Council,  for  the  work  you  are  doing  in  the 
cause  of  humanity,  I  am  obliged  to  confess  to  you  that,  for  my  own  part,  I 
fear  I  may  not  in  future  be  able  to  give  the  needful  time  to  this  work  which 
it  demands.  I  wish  to  leave  it  in  abler  and  freer  hands.  It  has  my  deepest 
sympathy.  It  points  to  one  of  the  most  important  of  all  the  means  by  which 
we  hope  to  "  undo  the  heavy  burdens  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free  "  and  inau- 
gurate a  purer  and  sounder  national  life.  To  keep  pace,  however,  with  this 
portion  of  the  great  work,  one  requires  to  have  the  head  and  heart  free,  and 
that  can  not  be  the  case  with  one  who  is  called  to  deal  with  the  most  misera- 
ble, to  walk  side  by  side,  hand  in  hand,  with  the  outcast,  the  victim  of  our 
social  sins,  whom  one  scarcely  dares  to  name  in  refined  society.  I  am 
full  of  hope  for  the  education  cause  and  for  the  anti-slavery  cause  in  which 
we  are  engaged.  Nevertheless,  my  very  soul  grows  faint  before  the  facts  of 
1870,  and  though  that  faintness  of  soul  may  complete  one's  fitness  to  be  a 
fellow-sufferer  with  the  slave,  it  does  not  increase  one's  capacity  for  a  work 
which  requires  intellectual  energy." 


Social  Purity.  25J> 

It  is  impossible,  and  would  not  be  right,  that  I  should  trouble  you  with 
a  report  of  the  arduous  work  which  our  Women's  Abolitionist  Society- 
accomplished  between  1869  and  1874.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  we  shook  the 
government  and  aroused  the  whole  nation.  Mountains  were  removed  by  the 
energy  imparted  by  a  gigantic  faith. 

In  1874a  "  new  departure  "  was  inaugurated.  The  battle  was  carried  across 
the  channel  to  France — where,  under  the  First  Napoleon,  this  abominable 
and  impure  tyranny  had  first  been  instituted  in  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century — to  Italy,  to  Switzerland,  to  Germany,  and  to  the  Netherlands.  It 
spread  afterwards  to  Spain,  Holland,  Denmark,  Austria,  Hungary,  and 
Sweden  and  Norway.  We  now  have  friends  in  Russia,  but  no  association  is 
yet  formed  there. 

In  the  first  report  of  the  Continental  work  the  movement  was  ,  thus- 
described  by  our  financial  secretary,  Professor .  Stuart,  M.  P.:  "It  was 
indeed  a  wise  intuition  which  led  the  women  of  England  to  carry  into 
its  original  strongholds  the  campaign  against  the  system  of  regulated  vice,, 
against  whose  encroachments  we  are  contending  in  this  country.  Not  only 
have  we  seen,  during  the  year  of  work  just  concluded,  refuges  for  the  fallen 
established  throughout  many  cities  of  Europe,  and  men  and  women  of 
many  languages  joining  to  call  for  and  work  for  the  abolition  of  regu- 
lated prostitution,  and  to  aim  through  that  at  the  abolition  finally  of  pros- 
titution itself,  but  we  have  seen  whole  cities  shaken  as  it  were  with  the 
wind  of  a  new  revival,  recognizing  the  crime  that  they  have  committed 
before  God,  in  regulating  and  licensing  the  destruction  of  his  image ;  we  have 
seen  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  nations,  societies  actively  working 
in  a  cause  which  had  before  lain  dormant,  and  we  have  seen  the  whole 
great  nation  of  Italy,  called  as  it  were  by  the  voice  of  God,  through  his 
poor  and  weak  servants,  recognizing  that  virtue  and  purity  alone  can  be  the 
basis  of  its  future  greatness." 

In  a  brief  time  we  had  won  the  public  adhesion  to  our  cause  of 
many  of  the  most  distinguished  persons  on  the  Continent,  among  whom 
we  counted  Joseph  Mazzini  and  Garibaldi,  in  Italy  ;  Jules  Favre,  Jules 
Simon,  and  Victor  Hugo,  in  France;  the  Count  Agenor  de  Gasparin 
and  the  Countess  de  Gasparin,  of  Geneva;  Baron  de  Bunsen  and  Count 
Ungern  Sternberg,  in  Germany ;  M.  Emile  de  Laveleye,  the  well-known 
writer  and  economist,  of  Belgium,  and  many  others.  But  it  is  not 
so  much  to  the  adhesion  of  the  great  men  that  we  hold,  as  to  the 
active  concurrence  of  the  thousands  of  women  on  the  Continent  of  Eu- 
rope, who  have  been  awakened  on  this  question  and  who  have  formed 
numerous  and  ever-increasing  associations  for  working  out  our  aims, 
more  especially  in  Switzerland,  Holland,  France,  and  the  Scandinavian 
peninsula.  Our  Continental  secretary,  M.  Humbert,  writing  on  this  subject 
after  fourteen  years'  experience,  says  :   "  Happy  are  those  nations  in  which 


260  International  Council  of  Women. 

women  themselves  have  taken  the  initiative  in  this  great  movement,  for  in 
such  cases  it  will  never  die,  whereas  in  countries  where  the  work  is  left 
entirely  to  men,  although  some  reforms  may  be  achieved,  the  movement 
never  possesses  the  same  life." 

This  brings  me  to  speak  of  our  work  in  the  Colonies  and  in  India.  It  is 
in  allusion  to  this  new  expansion  that  M.  Humbert  writes  the  letter  just 
quoted.  He  continues  :  "  How  are  we  to  proceed  successfully  for  the  eman- 
cipation of  women  from  the  hateful  thraldom  imposed  on  them  by  the  civili- 
zation of  conquering  races  (the  thraldom  of  compulsory  and  state  regulated 
prostitution),  among  Buddhists,  Brahmins,  Mahometans,  or  Pagans,  where 
the  fate  of  women,  in  this  world  at  least,  depends  absolutely  on  the  will  of 
man,  their  master.  This  is  a  difficult  question  to  answer.  We  see  occasion- 
ally a  spark  kindled  among  those  nations,  but  the  light  is  short  lived,  and  it 
requires  to  be  continually  rekindled." 

In  spite  of  these  difficulties,  however,  we  are  pushing  forward  our  work  in 
Egypt  and  in  the  French  colonies  of  North  Africa,  as  well  as  in  other  direc- 
tions. We  believe  that  the  question  is  coming  rapidly  to  the  front  in  India. 
The  present  mission  of  Mr.  Dyer  to  India,  is  producing  an  awakening  there 
that  will  be  productive  of  very  decided  results,  from  a  parliamentary  and 
governmental  pomt  of  view.  We  are  more  especially  concerned  with  the 
awakening  of  the  women  of  India  on  the  subject  of  this  imperially-imposed 
degradation  of  their  race,  and  to  kindred  questions  vitally  concerning 
womanhood.  On  this  side  we  are  full  of  hope.  It  is  affecting  to  see  the 
petitions  which  are  now  in  the  hands  of  some  of  our  Members  of  Parliament 
this  session.  These  petitions  are  from  Anglo-Indian  and  native  women,  and 
many  are  signed  in  Hindoo  characters.  The  prayer  of  the  petition  is  for 
relief  from  this  degrading  law.  We  receive  also  privately  very  touching 
appeals  from  Indian  ladies,  and  to  these  our  association  responds  with  eager 
sympathy. 

The  following  quotation  from  one  of  the  replies  sent  from  the  Leeds 
branch  of  our  Abolition  Society,  will  show  you  the  spirit  with  which  the 
women  of  the  world  are  communicating  with  each  other  on  this  subject : 
"  Do  let  us  assure  you,  dear  Indian  friends,  that  we  have  found  that,  so  long 
as  our  motives  are  pure,  no  evil  knowledge  can  hurt  us.  We  have  seen,  on 
the  contrary,  that  work  of  this  kind,  undertaken  in  the  spirit  of  consecration 
{and  in  no  other  spirit  can  any  one  endure  to  continue  the  work),  may  lead 
to  a  higher  and  purer  knowledge  of  life  and  of  the  human  heart ;  that  many 
have  found,  as  all  must  do  sooner  or  later,  that  intellectual  force  alone  can 
not  guard  against  the  horror  of  this  evil,  and  have  thus  been  driven  to  seek 
more  spiritual  means  of  warfare,  and  so  have  passed  into  a  higher  life.  Do 
be  sure,  dear  friends,  that  whatever  your  enemies  may  say  of  you,  in  the  invis- 
ible Kingdom  of  Righteousness  you  can  but  be  purified  by  this  labor  of  love." 


Social  Purity.  261 

Thus  the  women  of  the  world  are  reaching  out  their  hands  to  each  other,, 
and  banding  themselves  together,  so  that  when  councils,  rulers,  and  lords- 
of  science  endeavor,  by  decrees,  or  by  social  tyranny,  to  give  a  continuance 
to  the  most  degrading  institution  which  has  defiled  the  history  of  the  human 
race,  they  will  have  the  power  to  say:  "You  shall  not  slay  us  or  our  sis- 
ters." They  have  struck  a  note  for  which  the  ages  have  been  waiting,  and 
which  even  the  church  itself,  in  its  organized  ecclesiastical  forms,  has  never 
yet  intoned. 

There  is  a  point  on  which  I  have  sometimes  thought  (possibly  without  rea* 
son)  that  American  women  feel  less  strongly  than  we  do.  I  allude  to  the 
physical  treatment,  forcibly  imposed,  the  personal  outrage  on  women,  which 
lies  at  the  root  of  the  practical  working  of  the  whole  system  of  the  state 
regulation  of  vice.  You  have  happily  not  had  in  America  the  practical 
experience  which  we,  in  the  Old  World,  have  had  of  the  degrading  effects  of 
this  outrage.  It  is  the  final  and  most  complete  expression  of  the  foul  idea  of 
woman  as  a  chattel,  a  slave,  an  instrument,  a  mere  vassal,  officially  dedicated 
to  the  vilest  uses. 

At  our  last  International  Congress,  held  at  Lausanne,  September,  1887, 
some  of  our  less-instructed  followers  had  been  occupying  too  much  of  our 
time  in  an  attempt  to  defend,  up  to  a  certain  point,  the  State's  action  in  tyran- 
nizing over  women.  Thinking  that  the  moment  had  come  for  a  decided 
word  on  the  part  of  women  themselves,  I  gave  utterance  to  the  thoughts 
which  were  in  my  mind,  and  in  doing  so  I  proclaimed,  in  the  name  of  all 
women,  that  whatever  subtlety  of  argument  might  weigh  with  certain  doctors, 
legislators,  etc.,  this  was  nothing  to  us,  and  that  we  women  solemnly  declared 
again  the  principle  of  our  own  dignity,  and  our  determination  never  to 
sanction  the  enslavement  of  any  woman  by  the  outrage  perpetrated  under 
this  system.  At  the  close  of  my  few  words  Mme.  de  Morsier,  of  Paris,  rose,, 
and  with  uplifted  hand  asked  earnestly  that  every  woman  present  who  agreed 
with  and  re-echoed  from  the  depths  of  her  heart,  the  words  of  Mrs.  Butler, 
should  stand  up.  The  large  hall  was  crowded  with  women  as  well  as  men. 
The  men  continued  sitting,  but  every  woman  rose,  and,  with  the  right  hand 
uplifted  high,  followed  the  action  of  Mme.  de  Morsier  and  Mme.  de  Gingins, 
responding  to  the  solemn  words  uttered  by  her :  "  In  the  name  of  God, 
Amen."  There  was  a  significant  silence  for  a  few  moments.  Some  of  the  gen- 
tlemen were  surprised,  most  were  deeply  moved,  and  to  every  woman  present,. 
I  feel  convinced,  it  was  a  ratification  of  our  principles  never  to  be  forgotten. 
The  sound  of  it  went  far  abroad  beyond  the  mere  hall  of  meeting  itself.  I 
mention  this  incident  merely  as  an  illustration  of  the  spirit  of  our  women,  in 
their  jealous  guardianship  of  the  sacredness  of  womanhood  even  in  the  per- 
sons of  the  most  degraded  of  their  sisters.  I  myself  believe  this  spirit  to  be 
thoroughly  in  accord  with  that  of  our  Master,  Christ. 

As  an  inevitable  and  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  establishment  of 


262  International  Council  of  Women. 

licensed  houses  of  ill-fame  under  government  patronage  all  over  the  world, 
there  exists,  as  you  all  know,  tne  most  extensive  slave  traffic  in  the  interest 
of  vice.  This  fact  has  become  so  fully  acknowledged  during  the  last  few 
years  as  to  have  given  rise  to  that  admirable  and  much-needed  society,  the 
''International  Association  of  Friends  of  Girls,"  originating  in  Switzerland 
and  now  spreading  all  over  and  far  beyond  Europe.  That  society  has  been 
greatly  strengthened  in  England  since  the  congress  held  in  London  in  1886; 
and  this  fact  is  brought  home  to  us  by  the  reassuring  sight  at  various  railway 
^stations  and  landing  places,  of  the  warnings  and  friendly  placards  so  dili- 
gently distributed  and  put  up  by  the  English  branch  of  the  society,  inform- 
ing all  girls  and  women  of  where  they  may  find  friends,  and  of  what  dangers 
they  must  beware.  Our  Federation  has  collected  carefully  many  facts  and 
statistics  concerning  this  world-wide  slave  traffic. 

People  in  Europe  speak  with  indignation  of  the  traffic  in  negroes.  It 
would  be  just  as  well  if  they  would  open  their  eyes  to  what  is  going  on  much 
nearer,  throughout  the  whole  of  Europe,  especially  in  Germany  and  Austria, 
where  the  exportation  of  white  slaves  is  carried  on  on  a  large  scale.  A  terrible 
picture  is  presented  to  us  of  the  enforced  movement  to  and  fro  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth,  of  these  youthful  victims  of  human  cruelty.  Numbers  are  em- 
barked at  Hamburg,  whose  destination  is  South  America,  Bahia,  and  Rio  de 
Janeiro.  The  greater  number  are  probably  engaged  for  Montevideo  and 
Buenos  Ayres;  others  are  sent  by  the  Straits  of  Magellan  to  Valparaiso. 
Other  cargoes  are  sent  to  North  America,  some  being  forwarded  through 
England,  others  direct.  The  competition  which  the  traders  meet  with  when 
they  land,  sometimes  constrains  them  to  go  further  ahead ;  they  are  found, 
therefore,  descending  the  Mississippi  with  their  cargoes,  to  New  Orleans  and 
Texas.     Others  are  taken  on  to  California. 

In  the  market  of  California  they  are  sorted,  and  thence  taken  to  provision 
the  different  localities  on  the  coast,  as  far  as  Panama.  Others  are  sent  from 
the  New  Orleans  markets  to  Cuba,  the  Antilles,  and  Mexico.  Others  are 
taken  from  Bohemia,  Germany,  and  Switzerland  across  the  Alps  to  Italy, 
and  thence  further  south  to  Alexandria  and  Suez,  and  eastward  to  Bombay, 
Calcutta,  Singapore,  Hong-Kong,  and  Shanghai.  The  Russian  official  houses 
of  vice  draw  their  slaves  in  a  great  measure  from  eastern  Prussia,  Pomerania, 
and  Poland.  The  most  important  Russian  station  is  Riga  j  it  is  there  that 
the  traders  of  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  sort  and  get  ready  their  cargoes  for 
Nijni-Novgorod,  and  from  this  latter  place  cargoes  are  sent  on  to  the  more 
distant  towns  of  Siberia.  At  Tschita  a  young  German  was  found  who  had 
been  sold  and  resold  in  this  manner. 

You  in  America  are  happily  free  from  the  state  regulation  of  vice;  but, 
undoubtedly,  there  is  an  extensive  traffic  in  white  slaves  in  your  midst,  and 
a  constant  importation  to  your  shores  of  poor  foreigners,  who  are  destined 
to  moral  and  spiritual  destruction.     I  trust  you  will,  from  your  Congress, 


Social  Parity.  263 

put  out  strong  hands  for  the  abolition  of  this  traffic.  It  may  be  that  I  am 
writing  to  some  who  have  been  accustomed  to  think  of  the  poor  outcasts  of 
society  as  beings  different  from  others,  in  some  way  tainted  from  their  birth; 
creatures  apart,  without  the  tenderness  and  capacities  for  good  possessed  by 
your  own  cherished  daughters.  You  may  have  imagined  them  to  be  for  the 
most  part  reckless  and  willful  sinners,  or,  if  in  the  first  instance  betrayed  or 
forced  into  sin,  now,  at  least,  so  utterly  destroyed  and  corrupted  as  to  have 
become  something  unmentionable  in  polite  society.  Now,  all  who  have  had 
a  practical  acquaintance  with  the  lives  of  poor  and  tempted  women,  know 
how  mistaken  is  such  a  judgment,  how  cruelly  false  in  most  cases.  But, 
granting  for  the  moment  that  women  who  have  fallen  from  virtue  have 
become  so  degraded  as  to  be  repulsive  or  uninteresting  to  you,  what  have 
you  to  say  concerning  outraged  children  ?  And  thousands  of  these  are  but 
children  in  age  and  in  knowledge. 

Who  will  dare  to  say  that  any  child  is  determinedly,  willfully  wicked  and 
degraded;  that  any  child  in  the  world  is  further  from  God's  kingdom  than 
we  grown-up  people  are,  however  virtuous  we  may  be?  Nay,  but  "  of  such 
is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  One  who  never  errs  has  said  it.  We  are  not 
told  that  He  selected  an  exceptionally  pure  and  holy  child  when  He  set  a 
little  child  in  the  midst  of  the  multitude  and  said  that,  except  we  become 
as  such  a  little  child  we  shall  in  nowise  enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven; 
verily,  "their  angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven ;  "  and  woe  be  to  that  man,  to  that  nation,  to  those  mothers  of  men 
and  of  nations,  who,  seeing  that  little  child  fallen  among  thieves,  robbed, 
wounded,  murdered,  dying,  shall  calmly  pass  by  on  the  other  side  !  A  day 
is  coming  in  which  it  will  not  avail  any  of  us  to  say  we  knew  it  not ;  for  now 
we  know  it.  The  means  of  knowing  it  and  the  means  of  helping  to  redress 
this  wrong  are  within  our  reach,  at  our  very  hand.  I  cherish  the  hope  and 
the  belief  that  the  time  is  at  hand  when  all  women  who  are  indeed  at  heart 
mothers  and  worthy  of  the  name,  will  give  up  the  chilling  reserve  which 
seems  too  much  like  acquiescence  in  evil,  and  will  come  forward  to  .the  res- 
cue, not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  innocent  and  betrayed,  but  for  the  sake  of 
their  sons  and  of  our  national  life. 

This  letter  is  sent  forthwith  the  earnest  prayer  that,  while  pardoning  the  im- 
perfections of  my  poor  appeal,  God  would  make  use  of  it,  to  fan  the  holy 
and  purifying  fire  which,  I  feel  sure,  is  already  kindled  in  your  hearts.  Whe 
I  kneel  in  my  chamber  to  plead  for  the  deliverance  of  these  little  ones  for 
whom  Christ  died,  I  seem  to  see  the  childish  faces  gathering  in  crowds 
around  me,  filling  the  space  on  every  side — the  faces  of  the  slaughtered  dead 
as  well  as  of  the  living.  These  victims,  voiceless  and  unable  to  plead  their 
own  cause,  seem  to  make  their  ceaseless,  mute  appeal  from  their  scattered, 
unknown  graves,  and  from  out  those  dark  habitations  of  cruelty  where  they 
are  now  helplessly  imprisoned.    But  their  weeping  has  been  heard  in  Heaven, 


264  International  Council  of  Women. 

and  judgment  is  at  hand.  Of  their  destroyers  it  may  be  said:  "  They  mur- 
der the  fatherless,  yet  they  say  the  Lord  shall  not  see  it."  Of  you,  O  friends, 
let  it  be  said,  and  let  the  Savior  himself  speak  the  words:  "Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

I  am  yours  in  the  service  of  God  and  of  humanity, 

Josephine  E.  Butler. 

Mrs.  Harbert.  It  is  with  great  pleasure  I  present  to  you  Mrs.  Laura 
Ormiston  Chant,  delegate  from  the  Edinburgh  Branch  of  the  Federation  for 
Repeal  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice,  whose  chief  officers  are  Jennie  M. 
Wellstood,  Eliza  Wigham,  and  Elizabeth  Pease  Nichol. 

Mrs.  Chant.  My  sisters,  do  you  know  what  you  represent  this  morning  ? 
You  represent  all  the  centuries  of  womanhood  crowded  here  under  the  roof 
of  this  building,  who,  from  terrible  persecution  and  shame  and  silence,  have 
protested  against  the  double  standard  of  morals  for  men  and  women.  There 
isn*t  one  single  Avoman  in  this  great  multitude  who  is  not  a  living  protest 
before  Almighty  God,  that  while  life  is  given  to  us  to  breathe,  to  speak,  with 
power  to  touch  each  other,  we  will  none  of  us  have  part  or  lot  in  that  which 
has  been  the  curse  of  the  world  and  the  ruin  of  dynasties.  Whether  you 
know  it  or  not,  you  are  a  protest  against  the  pitiful  figure  of  the  girl,  three 
hundred  years  ago,  as  she  crept  through  the  cholera-stricken  streets  of  Naples, 
with  a  yellow  handkerchief  around  her  neck  to  mark  that  she  was  at  the  lib- 
erty of  every  man  who  chose  to  violate  the  solemn  bond  of  sex  ;  compelled 
by  the  government,  backed  by  the  law  made  by  man.  There  was  not  a 
single  outcast  woman  of  Naples  who  was  not  to  be  known  by  a  broad,  yellow 
handkerchief  which  she  wore  around  her  neck. 

You  are  a  protest  against  the  poor  woman  in  the  tribe  of  the  Vandals  when 
they  made  war  on  the  Goths,  when  she  was  obliged  to  receive  three  hundred 
lashes  because  she  was  a  woman  of  light  conduct;  but  it  was  not  because  she 
was  a  woman  of  light  conduct  that  she  received  them,  but  because  she  was 
found  out  in  her  light  conduct — in  her  sin,  as  it  was  deemed  by  the  superior 
virtue  of  the  men  who  administered  the  lashes  upon  her  shoulders;  and  she 
threw  herself  down  upon  her  knees  and  cried  with  a  language  which  I  have 
not  heard,  but  which  I  understand  :   "Give  him  half;  give  him  half.". 

You  are  a  protest  against  the  women  who  have  been  walking,  and  I  shame 
to  say  it,  through  the  main  towns  in  England,  in  fear,  at  every  turn  in  the 
street,  of  having  a  hand  laid  on  their  shoulder  by  a  man  and  being  walked 
off,  either  to  the  lock-up  or  that  other  terrible  torture  chamber.  You  are  a 
protest  against  the  girl  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  who  wa"  walking  through  the 
streets  of  Dover,  when  two  stalwart  men  walked  up  behind  her — she  was  an 
innocent,  bright  looking  girl,  but  they  had  the  power — and  if  this  girl  was 
of  a  light  life  they  had  the  right  to  do  this  very  thing,  to  take  her  and  lock 
her  up  on  the  charge  of  light  life ;'  and  when  the  hunted  girl  had  found 
that  there  was  no  refuge  for  her  in  human  justice,  that  humauity  had  no 


Social  Purity.  265 

help  for  her,  she  preferred  the  great  waves  of  the  sea,  and  threw  herself  over 
the  dock  ;  and  when  these  two  men,  guardians  of  law  and  order,  saw  the 
struggling  girl  in  the  water,  they  said  it  was  all  right  and  went  away. 
But  a  boatman  saw  her,  went  to  her,  and  took  her  in  his  boat  and  landed 
her.  And  when  the  two  men  saw  that  she  was  rescued,  they  hurried  to  the 
place,  and  took  the  girl  again  and  brought  her  before  the  magistrate  on  the 
charge  of  suicMe ;  and  the  magistrate  counselled  her  and  warned  her,  and  it 
was  only  at  very  great  expense  that  we  got  a  lawyer  down  from  London  to 
prove,  as  no  man  can  prove,  that  she  had  not  outraged  her  own  purity,  but 
was  supporting  her  old  father  in  working  as  a  charwoman  at  eighteen  pence  a 
day. 

You  have  heard  how  we  in  England  got  those  laws  repealed.  It  was  a 
gala  day  in  England  that  you  can  hardly  imagine  when,  at  Westminster,  the 
votes  were  taken  and  we  found  we  had  achieved  such  an  unparalleled  victory. 
I  can  hardly  speak  of  it  to-day,  for  1  have  not  done  thrilling  with  what  I  felt 
when  a  telegram  came  to  me  from  a  Member  of  Parliament :"  "  Thank  God, 
the  victory  is  ours."  After  that  came  the  terrible  story  in  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette,  and  then  I  think  the  whole  world  was  divided  into  two  great  camps, 
and  the  one  camp  was  composed  of  those  who  said,  "  Never  mind  what  is 
done,  so  long  as  it  isn't  spoken  about,"  and  the  other  camp  said,  "If  these 
things  are  done,  they  shall  be  spoken  about  until  they  are  swept  away." 
And  we  had  the  most  magnificent  demonstration  in  Hyde  Park  that  can  be 
conceived.  There  could  not  have  been  less  than  a  hundred  thousand  peo- 
ple at  it,  and.  in  all  probability  there  were  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 
And  the  news  of  it  only  reached  the  United  States  in  fragments  ;  the  reason 
of  it  was  this- — that  there  was  a  huge  conspiracy  on  the  part  of  the  London 
press  not  only  to  write  it  down,  but  to  ignore  it  altogether. 

One  paper  said  there  might  have  been  five  thousand  people  in  Hyde  Park 
that  afternoon,  but  only  fifteen  hundred  of  them  had  come  to  witness  the 
demonstration,  and  we  said  it  seemed  as  if,  in  trying  to  teach  the  world 
morality,  we  should  first  have  to  try  to  teach  our  men  to  count.  That  demon- 
stration meant  that  at  last  the  silence  was  broken  and  the  spirit  of  God  had 
moved  upon  this  great  sea  of  human  passion.  I  have  been  twenty-five  years 
engaged  in  behalf  of  my  own  sex,  and  my  hair  is  not  gray  yet,  and  I  can  say 
that  the  marvelous  change  in  the  character  of  our  work,  not  only  the  demon- 
strations in  Hyde  Park,  but  the  awakening  of  public  conscience,  have  been, 
in  great  part,  due  to  the  brave  pen  of  Mr.  Stead.  In  the  early  days  it  was 
not  an  uncommon  thing  for  me  to  address  three  or  four  hundred  women, 
and  to  have  every  one  of  them  come  with  a  veil  on  her  face.  I  have 
sometimes  laughed,  even  when  I  have  been  in  the  midst  of  a  solemn  speech, 
to  see  the  veils  gradually  lifted  up  and  put  under  the  chairs.  We  do  not 
have  veiled  ladies  now,  and  we  do  not  find  if  difficult  to  get  the  largest  meet- 
ings we  ever  have  in  England,  on  the  matter  of  social  purity. 
18 


266  International  Council  of  Women. 

We  had  a  meeting  recently  at  Colston  Hall  in  Bristol,  which  seats  5,000, 
and  that  night  it  had  to  hold  6,000,  and  some  of  the  speakers  rode  to  the  hall 
in  the  mayor's  carriage.  They  made  a  civic  thing  of  it,  which,  I  assure  you, 
is  an  honor  in  England — to  go  to  a  purity  meeting  in  the  mayor's  carriage. 
All  over  the  country  we  are  spreading  the  organizations  which  were  formed 
right  on  the  face  of  Mr.  Stead's  terrible  articles  in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette. 
None  of  us  who  have  been  doing  the  rescue-work  doubted  the  absolute  accu- 
racy of  those  articles.  I  myself  would  have  staked  my  reputation  upon  their 
truth,  because  I  know.  But  even  supposing  we  had  not  known  that,  we  had 
only  to  turn  to  the  Blue  Book,  which  had  been  published  by  and  received  the 
sanction  of  the  House  of  Lords  ten  years  before  that,  to  show  that  a  traffic 
more  terrible  than  any  Mr.  Stead  ever  laid  bare  in  his  articles,  had  been 
known  and  had  been  enrolled  in  the  statute-books  of  the  nation.  I  possess 
a  copy  of  this  Blue  Book,  and  when  anybody  tells  me  that  this  is  an  exag- 
geration, I  say,  "  If  you  have  the  courage  to  stand  by  your  convictions, 
you  shall  sit  down  in  my  writing-room  and  read  the  most  agonizing  review 
that  ever  came  to  the  world  at  the  hands  of  men,  some  of  whom  would  have 
given  all  their  wealth  not  to  indorse  the  truth  of  the  statements,  because  they 
were  concerned.  We  are  forming  a  net-work  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  law 
that  was  made  on  the  face  of  that  assertion.  We  would  carry  it  out  so  that 
we  would  no  longer  have  the  age  of  twelve,  as  a  limit  at  which  our  children 
could  be  protected. 

Let  me  give  you  a  sample  of  how  we  do  our  work.  We  had  in  one  place 
a  Member  of  Parliament  so  dastardly  that  he  sat  in  his  place  in  our  House 
of  Commons  and  said  that,  for  his  part,  he  would  like  to  have  the  age  lower. 
Didn't  he  speak  to  eager  ears  in  that  ladies'  gallery  !  And  one  of  them  went 
down  to  the  place  he  represented  and  the  good  women  there  got  meetings 
together  and  we  made  the  place  so  hot  for  him  that  he  didn't  dare  to  come 
before  the  people.  There  is  nothing  like  bringing  the  great  fire  of  passion- 
ate and  reverent  love,  to  burn  up  this  chaff  that  is  hiding  the  wheat  from  the 
world. 

Then  we  formed  these  organizations  because  the  trade  was  going  on  and 
our  law  did  not  meet  the  needs  of  the  transportation  of  these  girls  out  to  New 
York,  out  to  Canada,  out  to  Madras  and  Bombay  and  Antwerp  and  St. 
Petersburg.  There  were  thousands  being  taken  under  the  guise  of  domestic 
service.  Briefly,  I  will  tell  you  this — that  at  our  principal  railway-stations 
in  London  and  the  ports  of  England  to-day,  we  have  ladies  of  high  char- 
acter and  good  social  position,  who  walk  these  stations  and  walk  those  ports 
from  morning  to  night,  in  turn,  that  they  may  watch  the  outgoing  of  passen- 
gers to  the  ships.  I  myself  have  done  that  work,  so  I  know  what  I  am  talk- 
ing about.  It  has  been  a  passionate  desire  of  mine  that  that  work  should  be 
done,  long  before  we  threw  it  into  the  hands  of  the  Travelers'  Aid  Associa- 
tion, under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Woman's  Christian  Association  and 
our  National  Vigilance  Association. 


Social  Purity.  267' 

I  will  just  give  you  one  instance.  One  day,  three  years  ago,  I  went  to 
Charing  Cross,  which  is  the  station  for  Folkestone,  and  from  Folkestone 
they  go  to  the  Continent;  and  I  sat  in  the  waiting-room  and  saw  a  most 
miserable  hag  of  a  woman  with  a  poor,  wretchedly-appearing,  crying  girl. 
I  did  not  know  then  the  state  of  this  trade,  and  I  said  to  her,  "  Dear, 
what  are  you  crying  for?  "  And  the  girl  didn't  answer  me,  and  I  thought 
she  might  be  deaf.  Then  the  old  hag  came  up  and  shook  her  fist  in  my  face 
and  said,  "  How  dare  you  speak  to  that  girl  ?  "  I  felt  very  uncomfortable. 
I  knew  there  was  some  terrible  wrong  there  ;  so  I  went  up  to  a  policeman 
and  spoke  to  him,  not  as  a  policeman,  but  as  a  man  who  knew  about  such 
things,  and  I  said  :  "  Will  you  see  about  that?  There  is  something  wrong." 
"  Oh,"  said  he,  "  lots  of  them  go  over  to  the  Continent — lots  of  them.  It 
is  just  their  own  doing,  and  they  like  to  go."  Then  there  was  no  law  to 
touch  it — not  a  single  power  to  stop  that  girl.  Three  years  after  the  law  was 
on  our  side. 

I  was  in  Charing  Cross  station  again  last  year,  and  there  sat  in  the  wait- 
ing-room that  same  old  hag,  with  another  miserable  girl.  Now  I  had  the 
law  on  my  side,  and  I  went  up  to  the  girl  and  said  :  "  Dear,  where  are  you 
going  ?  "  She  said  :  "Iara  going  to  service  in  Boulogne."  I  said  :  "Are 
you  sure  you  are  ?  To  whom  are  you  going  ?  "  She  said  :  "I  looked  out 
for  a  situation  at  my  home  in  Essex,  and  the  clergyman's  wife  gave  me  the 
newspaper  and  we  read  the  advertisement  saying  that  girls  were  wanted  for 
the  refreshment  bar,  and  good  wages  given  and  great  care  taken,  and  a  com- 
fortable home,  and  I  am  going."  And  I  said  :  "No;  you  are  not."  And 
I  went  to  our  Vigilance  Council,  of  which  I  am  a  member,  and  I  made  one 
of  the  lawyers,  who  is  a  member  of  it,  go  out  with  me.  We  went  back  to 
the  station  and  we  telegraphed  to  our  association,  and  said:  "Stop  an 
elderly  woman  with  a  girl,  for  we  are  making  inquiries."  I  had  got  from 
the  girl  the  address  of  the  clergyman's  wife  in  Essex.  I  telegraphed: 
"  Have  you  any  knowledge  of  where  this  girl  is  going?  Do  you  personally 
know  them  ?  "  She  telegraphed :  "  No  ;  we  have  only  written  references." 
And  we  telegraphed  again,  and  it  was  just  half  an  hour  before  the  boat 
started  from  Folkestone,  "Stop  that  woman  and  give  her  into  custody."' 
And  we  did,  and  the  woman  turned  out  to  be  a  procuress  of  a  great  many- 
years'  standing ;  and  we  think  we  have  stopped,  at  any  rate,  a  branch  of  this- 
most  infamous  trade.  And  we  kept  that  girl  at  her  home  in  Essex  and 
showed  her  how  it  was  better  to  earn  her  own  living  at  small  wages  in  En- 
gland, under  those  who  knew  her,  than  much  larger  wages,  where  every 
penny  made,  meant  a  nail  in  the  coffin  of  her  happiness,  her  purity,  and 
her  love. 

We  have  dens  of  infamy  in  our  London  ;  I  don't  know  about  your  Wash- 
ington. I  walked  through  your  streets  at  twelve,  half-past  twelve,  at  one, 
half-past  one,  this  morning,  and  I  saw  a  spectacle  so  amazing  that  I  tell  you 
it  that  you  may  feel  it.  I  was  blank  and  dumb  this  morning,  in  that  hour 
and  a  half,  when  I  walked  the  streets  and  saw  your  beautiful  Capitol,  standing 


268  International  Council  of  Women. 

-white  against  the  sky  in  the  moonlight,  and  in  all  this  time  I  met  not  one 
single  girl  or  woman.  In  London  I  should  have  met  a  tribe  of  them,  painted, 
bejewelled,  brazen,  talking  with  drunken  men,  themselves  half  drunken, 
imaking  their  bargains  of  shame  at  the  corner  of  every  street.-  I  have  felt, 
•"  Oh,  dear  new  country,  you  have  one  advantage  over  our  England,  at  any 
rate  you  have  not  this  sinful  traffic  going  on  in  your  streets  at  night."  All 
this  has  come  to  us  from  the  centuries  of  monastic  rule  and  feudalism,  and  it 
has  made  such  a  stain  on  our  world  and  our  life  that  only  the  waves  of  ob- 
livion can  sweep  it  away.  But  I  do  pray  you  women  here,  as  you  value  your 
country  and  the  future,  don't  let  one  single  chink  of  the  door  be  opened 
toward  the  regulation  of  this  horrible  wrong.  It  will  be  your  ruin,  as  I 
believe  it  was  the  ruin  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  Carthage  and  ancient 
Egypt. 

Years  ago  I  did  the  same  walking  in  Antwerp,  and  there  again  it  was  a 
clear  moonlight  night ;  and  as  in  my  walk  I  stood  outside  a  house  that  was 
lighted,  I  saw  there  two  policemen  with  swords.  Up  to  the  door  there 
came  a  cab  and  I  waited,  and  out  of  that  house  there  came  a  shawled 
figure,  as  of  some  one  who  was  very  ill.  She  passed  me  on  the  pavement, 
and  a  policeman  took  each  side  of  her  and  bundled  her  roughly  into  the  cab, 
and  she  groaned,  and  the  only  sigh  that  I  shall  hear  from  that  sister  of 
mine  on  this  side  of  Jordan,  was  the  one  cry  of  pain  that  has  gone  up  from 
the  women  all  over  the  world.  Oh,  God  !  she  was  compelled  to  be  in  that 
house,  with  those  policemen  there  in  the  name  of  the  state  to  keep  her  fast 
to  her  sin  for  those  who  had  bought  her ;  and  if  she  refused  at  the  bidding  of 
her  masters  to  do  the  thing  for  which  they  bought  her,  no  matter  how 
loathsome  her  companion,  those  policemen  were  to  take  her — the  only  time 
she  goes  out — before  a  magistrate  to  be  sentenced  for  two  or  three  months' 
hard  labor  for  refusing  to  submit  to  the  terrible  outrage  !  And  there  came  a 
poor  woman  and  said  to  me  in  German  :  "  Oh,  madam,  from  the  time  they 
go  in  they  never  leave,  except  to  go  to  the  hospital  or  the  graveyard.  The 
hospital  first  and  the  graveyard  after."  And  this,  my  sister,  was  going  to 
her  death ! 

Then  while  you  ask  every  one  here  to  overcome  this,  it  is  of  no  use  ;  all  our 
religion,  all  our  science  is  in  vain,  while  underneath  us  there  is  this  corroding 
cancer  of  unequal  standards  for  men  and  women.-  I  will,  tell  you  what  we 
are  doing.  We  are  forming  associations  for  the  protection  of  women,  so 
that  nowhere  shall  any  girl  be  unprotected.  And  out  of  this  is  coming  a 
higher  and  better  education.  It  is  very  well  to  take  up  work  out  of  pity,  but 
if  you  only  take  it  up  for  that,  your  work  is  sure  to  be  a  failure.  'You  may 
begin  by  pity,  as  I  did,  but  you  must  learn  to  grasp  principles  and  to  work 
on  those  principles.  We  have  had  long  years  of  rescue-work  in  our  England, 
d6ne  by.  very  good  ladies,  who,  I  hope,  will  excuse  me  for  saying  it,  had  not 
an  idea  of  a  principle  and  drew  their  dresses  around  them,  away  from  woman 


Social  Purity.  269 

kind,  and  they  said,  piously:  "We  thank  thee,  God,  that  we  are  not  as 
other  women  are."  And  what  have  women  to  do  with  politics?  It  has 
been  a  splendid  education  for  women' to  learn  what  politics  have  to  do  with 
them.  Some  of  us,  myself  included,  were  possessed  of  that  strong  cowardice 
which  shrinks  so  much  from  the  publicity  of  this  work.  I  will  tell  you  what 
made  me  come  to  it;  it  was  being  a  mother;  just  as  a  lioness  and  not  the 
lion  stands  out  to  protect  her  cubs,  so  I  realized  it  was  the  mother  who  should 
stand  out  to  protect  her  children  far  more  than  the  father.  When  I  looked 
at  those  little  girls  of  mine,  I  realized  that  I  was  responsible  for  their  exist- 
ence;  I  realized  that  it  was  I  who  had  molded  them  spiritually  and  physi- 
cally ;  I  realized  with  pride  that  it  was  I  who.  said  when  they  should  come 
and  how  often.  I  felt  that  my  responsibility  was  far  higher  even  than  my 
husband's,  in  taking  a  public  part  in  the  protection  of  all  other  girls,  and 
that  it  is  much  better  to  speak  about  evil  while  it  exists,  than  to  keep 
silence. 

I  have  the  great  honor  of  having  been  one  to  put  the  new  criminal  law 
into  force,  and  it  was. in  this  wise:  We  have  done  years  of  work,  and 
have  gone  into  bad  houses  to  get  poor  little  girls  out  of  them.  We  have 
gone  in  peril  of  our  lives,  but  I  stand  unmaimed  and  happy  before  you  this 
morning.  I  do  not  understand  being  afraid.  We  went  into  these  houses, 
and  if  the  little  girl  was  over  twelve  we  could  not  get  her  out.  Then  came 
the  criminal  law  bill.  Just  then  I  got  an  agonized  letter  from  a  poor  man 
down  in  the  country,  saying:  "My  little  girl  of  fifteen  went  up  to  service, 
and  her  mother  and  I  are  very,  very  poor,  and  can  not  go  to  her  and  see 
what  is  up  with  her,  for  she  writes  such  queer  letters."  Oh,  mothers,  I  hope 
never  in  all  your  lives  will  you  receive  such  letters  from  your  children. 
This  little  girl  of  fifteen  writes  :  "  I  am  in  such  a  nice  place;  they  are  so 
kind  to  me ;  they  have  me  down  in  the  drawing-room  every  night,  and 
one  of  the  gentlemen  here  has  promised  me  a  gold  watch  and  chain;" 
and  that  girl  had  gone  there  as  a  scullery  maid.  And  then  another  dread- 
ful letter:  That  such  a  fine  gentleman,  with  a  gold  chain  and  fine  clothes 
and  a  moustache,  had  asked  her  to  go  home  and  live  with  him,  as  he 
wants  a  little  girl  ;  he  has  lost  his.  Poor  little  child !  And  the  agonized 
father  wrote:  "  She  is  in  the  very  jaws  of  death."  And  in  our  society  we 
talked  about  this,  and  they  said  to  me:  "  This  child  should  be  taken  from 
this  place  at  once;  "  and  I  said,  How?  They  said  somebody  must  do  it. 
And  I  savid,~Who  ?  And  they  said,  You.  And  I  took  the  train  and  went  down 
to  the  country  and  came  to  a  beautiful  place,  with  a  fine  mansion,  surrounded 
with  trees  and  lawns  and  a  carriage-drive  around  it,  and  it  seemed  ajterrible 
thing  to  go  up  to  that  door,  as  if  it  were  a  bad  house,  as  it  was. 

Those  are  the  bad  houses  in  our  country ;  they  are  far  more  dangerous 
than  those  in  the  miserable  alleys  of  London.  When  I  got  part  of.  the 
way  up  the  carriage-drive  there  was  a  notice,  "Beware  of  the  dogs;  they 


270  International  Council  of  Women. 

are  running  about  the  grounds  and  are  very  savage."  Then  I  knew  it 
was  no  English  gentleman's  house.  Nowhere  in  England  are  such  notices 
as  that  in  gentlemen's  places.  I  went  to  the  door,  and,  oh,  thank  God! 
the  very  person  who  opened  the  door  was  that  little  girl,  with  dark,  sweet 
eyes,  like  my  own  little  girl's,  and  I  said  to  her,  "  Emma,  my  child,  I  have 
come  to  take  you  out  of  this  place."  And  the  girl  looked  sulky  and  didn't 
want  to  go,  so  I  said,  "  Run  down  the  carriage-drive,  and  in  that  cab  your 
sister  sits,  with  a  letter  from  your  father."  I  thought  if  she  saw  her  father's 
letter  the  girl  wouldn't  be  able  to  stand  out  then.  And  while  she  was  gone 
I  took  stock  of  that  dreadful  house  and  its  spring  doors  and  locks,  and 
everything  for  making  it  easy  for  anybody  to  get  in,  and  everything  making 
it  impossible  for  anybody  to  get  out.  I  went  into  the  drawing-room,  at  the 
invitation  of  the  hostess,  and  I  kept  my  boot  inside  the  lintel,  so  if  they 
slammed  that  door  on  me  it  would  crush  my  foot  first,  and  I  had  to  stand 
a  battle  of  an  hour,  in  the  name  of  the  law,  for  this  little  child.  I  had  no 
ordinary  enemy  to  deal  with.  I  had  a  woman  with  a  face  so  cruel  that  if  I 
flinched  or  faltered  for  one  moment,  I  think  my  life  would  have  paid  the 
price.  But  I  was  calm  and  cool,  and  behind  me  was  God,  and  I  had  no 
need  to  be  afraid.  I  took  the  child  out,  and  put  the  law  in  force,  and  we 
got  that  house  closed  and  its  infamous  trade  stopped. 

But  we  are  educating  our  people.  We  have  meetings  in  the  afternoon, 
of  women  alone,  and  mixed  meetings  in  the  evening.  Although  I  have 
addressed  meetings  of  men  alone,  I  greatly  prefer  mixed  audiences,  as  I 
am  afraid  that  men  and  women  will-lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  they  are  equally 
responsible. 

We  have  to  enter,  too,  into  the  question  of  housing  the  poor,  and  we  see 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  bring  up  moral  and  decent  girls  and  boys, 
where  father  and  mother  and  seven,  eight,  or  nine  children  are  herded 
together  in  one  room  in  the  close  contact  and  friction  of  every-day  life. 
But  there  are  ladies  like  Miss  Steer  in  the  East  End  of  London,  who  are 
solving  this  problem,  which  men  deem  impossible.  There  was  a  house  down 
by  the  London  dock  :  it  was  a  place  so  terrible  that  when  the  police  spoke  of 
it  in  the  courts  they  called  it  the  "Bridge  of  Sighs,"  because  of  the  girls 
who  committed  suicide  there.  And  Miss  Steer,  with  some  other  ladies,  went 
and  bought  that  house  and  made  it  a  Bridge  of  Hope,  and  now  it  is  a  hope 
for  all  the  poor  women  and  girls  there. 

One  more  story.  It  came  to  my  ears  when  I  was  a  sister  nursing  in  the 
East  End  of  London.  There  came  to  my  ward  a  mother,  of  between  six- 
teen and  seventeen,  very  young,  with  a  terrible  hurt  on  the  side  of  her  head, 
and  the  cause  of  it  was  that  she  had  thrown  herself  and  her  baby  off  London 
Bridge.  She  had  been 'ruined  by  her  lover  in  a  Berkshire  town,  and  the 
only  place  for  the  poor,  agonized,  expectant  mother  to  go  to  was  the  work- 
house, and  they  don't  treat  such  women  very  kindly  there;,  and  when  she 


Social  Purity.  271 

came  out  she  had  to  go  before  a  board  of  guardians,  all  men,  with  her  baby- 
in  her  arms,  and  she  was  censured  by  those  men  and  cautioned  not  to  repeat 
her  offense.  If  half  of  the  board  of  guardians  had  been  women,  I  think  the 
man  would  have  been  standing  there  to  have  been  censured  for  his  part ;  and 
the  girl  cried  so  bitterly  that  one  of  the  guardians  said  :  "Stop  ;  let  her  go 
out,"  and  he  followed  her  out  and  gave  her  a  shilling,  and  said:  "Lassie, 
don't  cry  ;  you  won't  mind  when  you  come  back  again."  The  girl  walked 
all  the  way  up  to  London,  and  was  taken  up  by  a  policeman  as  a  vagrant, 
and  at  last,  in  her  agony,  she  had  pitched  herself  over  the  bridge.  And 
outside  that  hospital,  day  after  day,  was  a  policeman  waiting  to  take  that  girl 
in  custody,  to  be  charged  and  tried  for  the  murder  of  her  baby,  and  either 
hung  or  sent  to  prison  for  ten  or  fifteen  years.  I  was  sitting  by  her,  giving 
her  loving  tenderness  and  counsel,  and  between  two  and  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning  I  had  said  to  her  our  God  would  be  with  her  in  her  prison  cell, 
and  would  give  her  work  to  do  and  comfort  her  as  never  man  had,  and  I 
told  her  of  the  motherhood  of  God  ;  I  told  her  how  God  was  mother  and 
father,  and  how  men  had  forgotten  it ;  and  her  face  grew  radiant,  and  when 
I  had  given  her  a  spoonful  of  arrowroot  she  raised  herself  up,  and  said: 
"  Sister,  sister,  you  have  been  kind  to  me,  at  least.  God  bless  you;  good- 
night; "  and  she  fell  back  on  her  pillow,  dead. 

I  want  you  to  go  away  this  morning  and  vow  to  God  upon  your  knees, 
vow  to  the  best  part  of  yourself,  that  you  will  not  only  listen  and  cheer  and 
applaud,  but  throw  into  form  your  convictions,  and  let  us  have  upon  this 
earth  a  harmonious,  glorious  band  of  women  everywhere,  who  will  bring  in 
the  golden  day  when  the  sorrow  and  sin  of  the  sexual  relationship  shall  be  no 
more,  and  home  shall  be  home  indeed. 

Miss  Anthony.  Permit  me  to  read  you  a  poem  by  Mrs.  Chant,  a  poem 
of  greeting  to  this  Council.  It  was  printed  and  five  hundred  copies  sent 
over  to  us  by  that  beautiful  and  noblewoman,  Mrs.  Priscilla  Bright  McLaren, 
of  Edinburgh. 

"  FROM  ENGLAND  TO  AMERICA." 

Clasp  hands,  O  friends,  across  the  broad  Atlantic  ! 

Touch  ours  with  yours,  athwart  the  mighty  sea ! 
So  that  we  feel  the  thrilling  of  your  pulses 

Stirring  our  own  to  cordial  sympathy. 

What  though  the  clamor  of  uncounted  billows 
Racks  the  resounding  air  from  shore  to  shore, 
/    .  Waiting,  we  listen  for  the  tender  echoes 

Rising  above  them,  ever  more  and  more. 

Echoes  of  prayers,  from  lips  of  kneeling  women, 

Echoes  of  songs,  that  chant  of  what  shall  be 
In  the  glad  day  when  justice,  truth,  and  freedom, 

Welcome  the  universal  jubilee. 

We  in  our  little  island,  for  our  thousands, 
Fight  the  brave  fight  that  can  not  know  defeat ; 

You  in  your  larger  country,  for  your  millions, 
Tread  the  long  march  that  never  can  retreat. 


272  International  Council  of  Women. 

We  too,  like  you,  are  passing  from  the  portal 

Of  the  dull  prison  of  our  womanhood, 
Into  the  glorious  sunshine  of  the  future, 

Into  the  free,  pure  air  of  equal  good. 

Over  the  mountain  rising  high  before  us, 

Dark  with  the  gloomy  mists  of  prejudice, 
Lies  the  long  road  that  leads  to  light  supernal, 

Stony  and  steep,  past  crag  and  precipice. 

Reach  out  your  hands,  O  sisters,  o'er  the  ocean, 

Union  is  strength  ;  ours  we  to  you  extend, 
So  that  with  clasp  of  love,  and  highest  courage, 

We  may  press  on  together  to  the  end. 

Mrs.  Harbert.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Mrs.  Caroline  M. 
S.  Frazar,  delegate  of  the  Moral  Education  Society  of  Boston. 

Mrs.  Frazar.  The  Boston  Moral  Education  Association  was  organized 
in  1873,  with  Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Severance  as  President,  and  as  the  work 
unfolded  many  have  been  enrolled,  until  now  we  have  thirty-seven  members* 
with  Mrs.  Kate  Gannett  Wells,  as  President,  whose  varied  interests  in  philan- 
thropy have  eminently  fitted  her  to  meet  the  issues  that  from  time  to  time  are 
presented  for  deliberation  and  action.  We  have  endeavored  to  deepen  the 
conviction  of  those  who  feel  that  personal  righteousness  is  the  bulwark  of  a 
nation's  strength,  and  to  arouse  the  consciences  of  all  others  who  are  only 
too  willing  to  condone  any  offense  which  is  not  penal.  We  distribute  leaflets 
and  tracts,  make  personal  appeals,  and  in  many  other  ways  endeavor  to  im- 
press the  women  of  the  less-favored  walks  of  life  with  a  sense  of  the  duties 
they  owe  to  their  children.  With  the  limited  means  of  a  membership  fee, 
we  make  yearly  contributions  for  suppression  of  legislation  on  the  social-evil 
acts,  and  for  seven  years  a  committee  of  our  ladies  have  appea.ed  to  gov- 
ernors, mayors,  legislators,  police  commissioners,  that  matrons  be  appointed 
in  station-houses.  These  efforts  have  been  attended  with  discouragements 
too  well  known  by  those  pioneers  in  this  work.  More  recently,  by  the  united 
efforts  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  the  Suffragists,  the 
Industrial  and  Educational  Union,  and  others,  we  have  succeeded,  and  a  State 
law  has  been  enacted  whereby  every  city  in  our  Commonwealth,  numbering 
30,000  and  upward,  may  have  police  matrons.  To-day  we  have  a  house  of 
detention  in  process  of  equipment,  and  our  police  wagon  has  done  service. 

The  question  naturally  arose,  Where  are  the  women  to  fill  these  positions 
as  matrons?  And,  to  our  surprise,  the  number  of  applicants  has  enabled  us 
to  have  a  choice;  therefore,  a  committee  of  twenty  ladies,  chosen  from  the 
various  organizations  represented  in  this  work,  has  been  appointed  to  examine 
into  the  fitness  of  the  applicants  for  these  arduous  duties. 

Last  year  we  contributed  to  the  Travelers'  Friendly  Aid  Association.  The 
services  of  a  most  estimable  woman  were  secured,  and  we  hope  in  time  this 
enterprise  will  be  extended  over  the  country  wherever  a  railroad  line  is  in 
operation. 

Mrs.  Harbert.     It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  introduce  to  this  audience 


Social  Purity.  273 

Dr.  Caroline  B.  Winslow,  bat  it  is  my  pleasure  to  greet  her  upon  this  plat- 
form as  President  of  the  Moral  Education  Society  of  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, and  editor  of  The  Alpha. 

THE    STARTING    POINT. 

Dr.  Winslow.  The  human  race  is  the  latest  evolution  and  the  crowning 
point  in  the  order  of  creation  ;  with  an  organization  most  complex  and  per- 
fect, while  possessing  rudimentary  traces  of  all  lower  orders  of  life,  we  are 
endowed  with  a  near  kinship  to  Jehovah  by  the  gift  of  reason,  and  the  power 
to  discriminate  and  to  choose  between  good  and  evil  ;  and  our  capacity  for 
growth  is  without  limit,  even  to  the  attainment  of  Godlike  attributes.  We 
are  slowly  emerging  from  a  period  of  childhood — an  age  of  impulse,  passion, 
and  appetite — and  nearing  maturity,  where  wisdom  should  guide  and  knowl- 
edge illumine  the  pathway  of  life. 

As  men  and  women  we  should  be  ashamed  to  cry  for  toys  or  sweets  with 
which  to  gratify  our  gustatory  relish.  When  we  reach  our  majority  in  men- 
tal and  moral  growth,  we  shall  be  equally  ashamed  of  our  greed  for  gain,  our 
lusts  of  the  flesh,  our  drunkenness,  and  gluttony.  We  shall  see  more  clearly 
that  the  important  point  to  make  is  in  the  beginning  of  each  new  life ;  that 
each  child  to  be  born,  starts  right,  with  its  dower  of  will  and  harmonized 
forces,  lest  we  be  covered  with  confusion  at  the  inherited  imperfections  of 
offspring.  By  reason  and  analogy  the  laws  of  transmission,  heredity,  and 
pre-natal  influence,  confirm  the  fact  that  children  are  born  by  our  own  voli- 
tion, begotten  in  our  own  image  and  after  our  own  likeness. 

Fathers  and  mothers  have  the  power  to  produce  a  higher  type,  or  at  least 
an  improved  type,  of  humanity  with  each  generation.  We  can  no  longer 
take  refuge  under  the  plea  of  ignorance,  for  these  facts  are  so  generally 
known  that  even  children  hold  in  their  hearts  and  on  their  lips  blessings  or 
maledictions  for  their  progenitors.  To  know  to  what  extent  this  is  true,  one 
has  only  to  place  one's  self  in  the  attitude  of  a  social  reformer  to  become 
the  confidante  of  many  sufferers. 

My  correspondence  the  past  fifteen  years,,  has  opened  to  my  knowledge  the 
depth  of  horrors  humanity  can  endure  and  exist.  The  awful  maledictions 
they  engender,  make  one  shudder  to  contemplate.  These  confidences  make 
such  painful  appeals  for  help  and  sympathy.  I  have  a  package  of  letters 
from  a  young  man  of  talent,  good  education,  and  a  strong  desire  to  live  a 
pure  and  useful  life.  In  boyhood  he  ignorantly  ruined  his  health,  and,  when 
he  resolved  to  rise  above  his  depressed  condition,  his  own  folly,  his  hered- 
ity, and  environment  weighed  him  down  like  an  incubus., 

His  appeals  are  most  touching.  He  says,  "  If  you  can  not  help  me,  what 
am  I  to  do?  My  mother  cursed  me  with  illegitimacy  and  hereditary  insan- 
ity. I  have  left  only  the  alternative  of  suicide  or  the  mad-house.  What  an 
awful  charge  against  the  memory  of  a  mother — an  inheritance  of  lust,  in- 
sanity, and  suicide  !" 


274  International  Council  of  Women. 

Is  there  a  mother  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  that  would  not  rather  the 
rocks  should  fall  and  hide  her  than  bear  such  a  reproach  from  the  blighted 
life  of  her  child  ? 

In  the  associations  represented  in  this  International  Council,  all  have 
been  organized  with  more  or  less  wisdom.  Each  has  achieved  a  measure 
of  success,  yet  none  has  been  wholly  successful.  But  how  soon  each 
society  reaches  its  limitations  and  halts  before  what  seem  to  be  impass- 
able barriers  !  How  many,  inspired  with  hope  and  enthusiasm,  have,  with 
spent  force,  become  conscious  of  having  accomplished  but  little  good,  with  a 
great  outlay  of  effort  and  treasure  ! 

In  early  life  I  had  many  such  ventures.  I  know  them  well.  I  did  not 
reach  down  to  the  bottom  fact  of  human  irregularities  and  weaknesses.  I 
did  not  begin  at  the  beginning  and  "  start  right."  Many  of  you  may  have 
had  a  similar  experience. '  One  of  the  original  Ohio  temperance  crusaders 
told  me,  that  after  ten  years  of  prayer  and  the  most  strenuous  effort,  the  soci- 
ety to  which  she  belonged  had  reformed  just  enough  drunkards  to  show  that 
some  could  be  saved,  but  the  number  was  exceedingly  small  and  the  increase 
of  drunkenness  enormous. 

A  similar  experience  is  the  result  of  what  is  called  "  rescue-work." 
While  all  wrong-doers,  all  weak  and  sinful  ones,  should  receive  a  helping 
hand,  and  be  given  opportunities  to  rise  higher,  let  us  cease  this  surface 
work  of  patching  and  reforming  and  look  deeper  into  the  origin  of  evil. 
Let  us  spend  the  best  of  our  strength  in  preventing  vice  and  suffering.  The 
future  of  our  race  lies  in  your  hands,  Oh,  wqman!  it  is  for  you  to  mould 
the  new  life  into  forms  of  vigor  and  grace.  This  can  be  done  by  self-puri- 
fication, high  thinking,  and  upright  living.  The  laws  of  transmission  are 
not  difficult  to  understand  or  obey.  We  possess  the  legacies  of  past  ages, 
the  developments  of  modern  science,  and  the  increase  of  mental  and  spir- 
itual force,  for  aids.  It  is  very  possible  to  utilize  these  acquisitions,* and  with 
a  little  common  sense,  apply  them  to  the  most  momentous,  and  by  far  the 
most  important,  act  of  life — -the  begetting  and  creating  of  new  forms  of 
intelligence.  You  hold  the  power  to  cast  each  new  conception  in  angelic 
mould  as  nearly  as  self-culture  and  self-discipline  can  make  yourselves  angelic. 
Children  thus  born  are  only  blessings.  Iniafter-life  they  wrestle  successfully 
with  temptations.  They  do  not  anticipate  insanity  or  suicide,  nor  curse 
their  existence  or  the  memory  of  their  parents.  So  it  becomes  of  the  first 
importance,  that  you  strive  to  make  the  "  starting  point  "  of  each  child's  life 
harmonious  and  beautiful — beginning  its  education  and  discipline  while  you 
have  complete  control  of  its  existence — endowing  it  with  physical  and  men- 
tal strength — preparing  it  to  be  well  born. 

Marriage  is  called  a  sacred  institution.  I  agree  it  should  be  sacred  and 
holy,  but  is  it?  If  so,  why  are  the  fruits  of  marriage  so  defective?  Why 
are  the  children  of  religious,  intelligent  citizens,  often  reckless  and  unprin- 


Social  Purity.  275 

cipled  persons?  The  records  of  our  free  lodging-houses,  almshouses,  police 
stations,  jails,  and  penitentiaries  have  on  their  list  the  names  of  descendants 
of  our  best  citizens — persons  that  have  received  good  education,  with  moral 
and  religious  instruction.  They  are  often  members  of  the  liberal  profes- 
sions— doctors,  lawyers,  ministers,  artists,  professors,  and  military  men. 
Many  of  our  poor,  debased  sisterhood  are  religiously  educated.  They  are 
familiar  with  Sunday-school  hymns  and  church  catechisms,  showing  they 
sprang  from  apparently  well-regulated  families.  Why,  then,  are  they  leading 
such  shameful  liv^es  ?  May  it  not  be  because  of  the  habitual  violation  of  the 
laws  of  chastity  and  continence  within  the  pale  of  marriage,  putting  that 
which  is  sacred  and  holy  to,  unclean  uses  ?  It  is  the  testimony  of  Dr. 
Sawyer,  as  well  as  the  keepers  of  brothels  and  houses  of  assignation,  that 
these  dens  of  infamy  do  not  look  for  their  support  from  young  and  unmarried 
men,  but  from  men  that  have  sworn  before  God  allegiance  to  one  woman. 
These  men  are  often  fathers  as  well  as  husbands. 

The  United  States  census  of  1880  presents  this  appalling  summary:  In 
the  ten  years  since  the  census  of  1870  the  population  of  our  country  had 
increased  30  per  cent.,  but  the  defective  class  had  increased  155  per  cent. 
The  insane,  idiotic,  blind,  deaf  mutes,  prisoners,  and  paupers  are  enumerated 
as  defectives. 

What  you  sow,  that  shall  you  reap.  If  you  sow  the  seed  of  selfishness,  and 
discord,  and  lust  in  the  most  impressible  stages  of  life,  these  conditions 
become  incorporated  into  the  innermost  being  of  the  child  you  carry  under 
your  heart.  Your  children  are  cast  in  your  own  likeness,  and  reflect  your 
conditions  at  the  time  of  conception  and  during  the  nine  months  of  gesta- 
tion. This  knowledge  largely  increases  the  responsibility  of  parentage,  and 
addresses  itself  especially  to  the  moral  perceptions  of  woman,  teaching  her 
what  a  high  and  holy  calling  is  hers 

And,  dear  sisters,  with  this  new  freedom  of  thought  and  action,  you  must 
take  the  lead  in  high  thinking  and  pure  living.  You  must  attend  conscien- 
tiously to  the  pre-natal,  as  well  as  post-natal  education  of  children.  You 
must  instruct  your  sons  and  daughters  in  physiology  ;  the  good  uses  to 
which  these  functions  must  be  applied.  You  must  teach  the  joy  of  obedi- 
ence to  procreative  law,  and  the  awful  penalties  that  follow  violations. 
These  duties  are  due  to  yourselves,  your  children,  society,  and,  above  all,  to 
your  God,  that  he  be  no  longer  dishonored  in  marriage.  With  Gerrit  Smith 
I  exclaim  :  "Heaven  speed  the  day  when  man  shall  be  expected  to  blush  as 
quick  and  as  deep  as  woman  at  any  degree  of  impurity — when  the  churches, 
public  opinion,  the  schools,  and  the  whole  world  shall  demand  the  same 
mental  and  moral  character,  strength,  beauty,  and  delicacy  for  man  as  for 
woman,  for  woman  as  for  man.  There  is  but  one  standard  of  morality  for 
both  man  and  woman,  and  as  long  as  a  different  standard  is  tolerated,  both 
sexes  will  be  perverse  and  corrupt." 


276  International  Council  of  Women. 

Mrs.  Harbert.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  of  Massachusetts,  Mrs. 
Harriette  R.  Shattuck. 

Mrs.  Shattuck.  It  is  my  habit  to  go  to  the  foundation  of  things,  so  far 
as  I  can,  and  find  those  principles  which  shall  be  of  universal  application  ; 
and  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  there  are  two  points  in  the  consideration  of 
ethical  questions  which  are  likely  to  be  overlooked.  One  of  these  is  that 
we  need  a  standard  of  conduct  by  which  we  may  solve  ethical  problems  ; 
the  other  is  to  try  to  find  the  philosophical,  and,  therefore,  the  true  nature 
of  marriage. 

We  need  very  much  a  standard  of  conduct  which  would  be  applicable  to 
all  cases,  so  that  we  may  have  something  better  to  guide  our  actions  by  than 
merely  the  subjective  standard  of  our  own  individual  opinions  or  convictions  ; 
that  is,  something  better  than  the  idea  that  because  an  act  seems  right  to  me, 
therefore  I  am  justified  in  doing  it.  There  are  many  questions  of  the  day 
which  are  decided  on  this  narrow  basis,  such  as  the  right  to  tell  little  white 
lies,  the  right  of  a  starving  man  to  steal  a  loaf  of  bread,  the  right  of  a  man 
to  vote  with  his  party,  regardless  of  whether  that  party  is  true  to 'its  prin- 
ciples ;  and,  finally,  our  special  question  this  morning,  the  one  standard  of 
purity,  is  often  subjected  to  this  common  criterion,  and  it  is  claimed  that  in 
certain  individual  cases  unchastity  is  excusable.  Now,  we  want  a  better  rule 
than  this.  We  want  an  objective  standard,  a  universal  principle,  outside  of 
our  mere  individual  decisions,  which  shall  enable  us  to  decide,  to  solve,  one 
by  one,  the  problems  that  vex  our  lives. 

The  nearest  approach  to  this  absolute  standard  of  morality,  this  law  of 
God,  which  some  day  we  shall  more  clearly  see,  is  this  :  Not  because  an  act 
is  right  for  me  am  I  justified  in. doing  it,  unless  it  is  also  right  for  you — for 
all  of  us.  If  a  certain  course  would  bring  benefit  to  the  world  by  all  per- 
sons acting  in  accordance  with  it,  I  may  pursue  that  course.  If  all  of  us 
may  not  do  so  with  benefit  to  the  world,  I  may  not.  An  act  is  right  for  me 
if  and  because  it  is  right  for  you,  or  for  every  one ;  an  act  is  wrong  for  me 
if  and  because  its  effects  would  be  bad  if  all  were  to  do  it.  The  whole  must 
decide  the  duty  for  the  part.  That  act,  the  result  of  which  would  be  bene- 
ficial if  all  were  to  do  it,  I  may  do.  Let  me  illustrate  :  Is  it  right  for  me  in 
a  given  case  to  tell  a  lie  ?  Would  it  be  right  if  all  persons  told  falsehoods  in 
cases  when  each  thought  it  excusable  ?  What  would  be  the  result  ?  We  see 
that  no  one  could  be  believed  ;  that  truth  would  be  destroyed  ;  consequently, 
it  is  wrong  for  me  to  tell  "the  lie.  The  same  with  stealing.  I  would  not 
condemn  the  starving  man  for  stealing  the  loaf  of  bread.  I  would  excuse 
him  and  help  him  ;  but  is  his  act  right?  Would  it  be  right  for  all?  Or 
would  honesty  disappear,-  the  world  be  able  to  trust  nobody,  and  a  standard 
of  honor  be  impossible  ?  It  is  clear  that  this  would  be  the  result.  There- 
fore, I  may  not  steal.     It  is  the  same  with  our  question  of  the  one  standard 


Social  Purity.  277 

of  purity  for  both  sexes.  It  is  right  for  one  person  to  be  impure  in  any  case 
if  it  would  be  also  right  for  all  persons  to  be  so.  Would  the  result  be  bene- 
ficial to  the  world  if  all  were  unchaste  ?  There  is  no  question  of  the  terri- 
ble result  of  any  such  general  impurity.  Therefore,  it  is  wrong  for  any  one 
of  us,  and  it  makes  no  difference  whether  that  one  be  a  man  or  a  woman. 

Here  enters  the  great  question  of  forgiveness.  When  may  the  one  who 
has  sinned  be  forgiven?  The  answer  to  this  is  that  when  repentance  comes 
forgiveness  enters,  for  forgiveness  is  contingent  upon  repentance.  So  only, 
Christ  forgave.  It  rests  with  the  one  who  has  been  wronged,  with  God,  to 
forgive  the  repentant  sinner.  I  should  forgive,  you  should  forgive,  the  man 
who  has  wronged  us,  but  I  have  no  right  to  forgive  the  man  who  has  wronged 
another  woman.  With  her  alone,  and  with  God,  rests  his  case.  This  is  a 
universal  principle,  and  may  be  applied  to  every  case.  It  is  our  duty  so  to 
apply  it.  For  when  we  have  found  a  principle,  then  we  have  a  criterion — a 
universal,  in  which  all  particulars  are  included,  and  with  which  they  are  at  one. 

Secondly,  as  to  the  true  nature  of  marriage.  It  is  often  considered  as  a 
contract.  Now,  what  is  a  contract?  It  is  a  something  that  relates  only  to 
external  things — such,  for  instance,  as  property.  A  contract  is  always  sub- 
ject to  dissolution  by  the  mutual  agreement  of  the  contracting  parties.  It 
can  be  dissolved  when  both  wish  and  agree.  That  marriage  is  a  contract,  is 
held  by  those  who  advocate  anarchy,  as  I  heard  expressed  at  a  meeting  not 
long  ago  in  Boston.  And  the  result  of  this  idea  would  be  anarchy  indeed, 
for  it  would  dissolve  all  marriages,  destroy  the  family  life  of  the  community. 

But  marriage  is  not  a  contract,  and,  therefore,  it  can  not  be  dissolved  by 
mutual  agreement.  Here  enters  the  whole  question  of  divorce,  which  I  have 
no  time  to  consider.  I  will  say  that  a  separation  for  a  cause  which  destroys 
the  sacredness  of  the  marriage  relation  and  imperils  the  birthright  of  the 
children  is  one  thing,  while  a  divorce,  with  the  privilege  of  remarrying, 
is  quite  another  thing.  As  Hegel  expresses  it,  "contract  is  the  expression 
of  the  accidental  will  of  man  (that  which  is  arbitrary,  imperfect,  undevel- 
oped, in  his  nature),  as  distinguished  from  the  universal  will  of  man,  or  that 
which  is  grounded  in  the  necessity  of  his  nature."  And  the  family  is  the 
outgrowth  of  this  universal,  necessary  nature  of  mankind,'  of  the  spiritual 
nature.  It  is  an  expression  of  the  universal,  objective  truth,  an  outcome  of 
man's  personality,  which  is  his  by  virtue  of  his  oneness  with  the  Divine, 
the  personal  Father  of  whom  he  is  the  personal  child.  In  so  far'as  he  is  at 
one  with  this  divine  personality,  he  himself  is  personal  and  universal. 

Marriage  is,  therefore,  a  sacred  institution,  grounded  in  the  divine  nature 
of  man  as  a  child  of  God.  It  is  an  ethical  relation,  not  a  mere  formal  one. 
Its  existence  is  not  arbitrary — dependent  upon  the  caprice  of  the  two  who 
have  assumed  the  relation — but  necessary,  dependent  upon  the  moral  nature 
of  man  as  a  spiritual  being.  Marriage,  therefore,  is  one  of  the  absolute 
principles  upon  which  the  ethical  character  of  society  rests.     To  quote  He- 


278  International  Council  of  Women. 

gel :  "  Marriage  is  essentially  a  spiritual  relation.  The  acknowledgment  and 
maintenance  of  this  relation  is  an  express  enthronement  of  the  spiritual  over 
the  natural.  It  involves  the  subjection  of  the  passions  and  of  the  special 
changing  likes  and  dislikes  of  the  individual,  to  the  law  of  a  common  life,  a 
common  law,  and  a  common  good." 

Mrs.  Harbert.  I  have  the  pleasure  now  to  introduce  Mrs.  S.  Magelssen 
Groth,  delegate  of  the  Norwegian  Women's  Suffrage  Association. 

Mrs.  Groth.  I  am  sure  I  am  pleased  to  be  here  and  to  attend  all  the 
meetings  of  the  Council.* 

The  question,  Are  women  to  enjoy  equal  rights  with  men  in  political,  civil, 
and  social  matters,  is  not  very  old  in  Norway — that  is  to  say,  the  principal 
demand  for  equality  has  only  been  made  public  for  a  few  years  ;  but  our 
women  have,  I  think,  from  old  times  been  independent  in  feelings  and  actions. 
Our  Saga  tales  record  wives  and  young  girls  with  wills  of  their  own,  and  the 
ancient  national  poetry  sings  not  only  of  sweet  Ingeborg  and  loving,  true- 
hearted  Gudrun,  but  also  of  the  proud,  beautiful  Brynhild,  who  will  not 
marry  any  but  the  most  valiant  of  men,  and  who,  when  she  learns  that  she 
has  been  deceived,  is  not  afraid  of  plotting  her  lover's  death  and  afterward 
killing  herself.  And  among  our  peasants — the  veritable  Norwegians  and 
owners  of  the  land — there  has,  as  I  understand,  always  been,  and  still  is,  as 
much  respect  for  women's  work  and  duties  as  for  men's.  But  these  ideas 
were  slumbering  in  the  depth  of  our  national  character  as  vague  notions 
without  any  certain  form.  That  they  have  been  called  forth  at  all,  and  that 
the  cause  of  women  has  been  so  far  advanced  as  is  the  case,  is  due  chiefly  to 
our  poets  and  authors. 

The  woman's  first  and  most  faithful  champion  is  Camilla  Collett,  the  sis- 
ter of  one  of  our  first  and  greatest  poets,  and  herself  a  first-class  author. 
She  raised  the  woman  question  about  forty  years  ago,  in  her  great  and  bril- 
liant romance,  "Amtmandens  Doetre  "  (the  Daughters  of  the  Governor). 
But  her  contemporaries  failed  to  appreciate  her,  and  the  author  had  to  retire 
into  herself,  disgusted  at  the  lack  of  understanding  that  was  shown  her, 
especially  from  her  own  sex.  Now,  certainly,  the  women  of  Norway  under- 
stand their  great  obligation  to  this  powerful  genius,  and  I  am  glad  to  say 
that  Mrs.  Collet  has  lived  to  see  this  universal  admiration. 

Henrik  Ibsen,  our  great  dramatist,  then  took  up  the  woman  question,  and 
anew  era  can  be  dated  from  the  appearance  of  his  "  Dukkehjem  "  ("A 
Doll's  Parlor  "),  in  the  year  1879.  Here  the  unworthy  condition  of  most 
women  within  marriage,  how  they  make  a  living  by  "  performing  tricks  for 
their  husbands,"  was  shown  with  such  force  and  vigor,  that  it  struck  the 
women  like  a  thunderbolt,  and  at  once  caused  that  change  in  the  public 
opinion,  that  had  for  a  long  time  been  under  preparation.  Ibsen's  indirect 
appeal  to  women,  to  seek  and  maintain  independence,  was  met  with  an  eager- 

*  Mrs.  G  roth's  address  was  not  read  by  her,  she  simply  said  a  few  words  of  greeting  in  reply 
to  her  introduction  to  the  audience. 


Social  Purity.  279 

ness  that  was  due  to  the  very  conditions  of  life.  In  Norway,  as  anywhere 
else,  men  are  too  scarce  to  allow  of  all  women  becoming  married.  And  now 
Ibsen  had  shaken  the  marriage,  as  the  monopolized  asylum  for  women,  and 
exhorted  our  women  toward  independence.  The  first  step  in  that  direction, 
quite  naturally,  is  the  ability  of  supporting  one's  self.  Public  opinion  was 
changed,  and  it  was  no  longer  considered  "unladylike"  for  a  woman  to 
support  herself,  but  the  difficulty  for  a  woman  in  Norway,  as  anywhere  else, 
I  suppose,  was  and  is  a  double  one  :  the  very  small  opportunities  for  women 
of  getting  work,  relatively  to  the  great  number  wanting  it ;  and,  second, 
the  very  poor  remuneration  that  their  work  will  yield  them,  if  they  succeed 
in  getting  it.  I  can  not  here,  however,  praise  our  Norwegian  women  for 
originality  and  initiative  faculty.  Although  of  late  different  kinds  of  posi- 
tions, have  been  opened  for  women,  as  telegraph  operators,  drug  clerks, 
cashiers,  as  clerks  in  private  offices  and  even  in  some  governmental  depart- 
ments, still,  most  ladies  turn  to  teaching.  We  tread  the  trodden  paths  and 
do  not  seek  for  new  fields  of  labor.  The  result  is  that  the  teaching  market 
is  so  flooded,  that  the  wages  are  very  low.  Thus,  an  educated  lady,  who  is 
supposed  to  instruct  four  or  five  hours  a  day,  and  to  be  able  to  teach,  beside 
the  common  school  branches,  three  foreign  languages  (English,  French, 
German),  music,  and  mathematics,  and  who  is,  furthermore,  supposed  to 
make  herself  generally  useful  in  the  house — such  a  lady  gets,  as  an  average, 
about  fifty  dollars  a  year  and  board. 

A  great  step  forward  in  the  equalization  of  woman's  rights  with  those  of 
men,  was  made  when,  in  1882,  the  university  opened  her  gates  for  women; 
and  the  first  student,  Miss  Cecilia  Thoresen,  entered  with  equal  rights  with 
men,  to  pursue  any  line  of  study  and  pass  any  of  the  examinations  of  the 
university.  Until  then  the  highest  education  had  been  reserved  for  men. 
Now  the  women  got  at  least  an  opportunity  to  show,  whether  the  old  talk  of 
their  inferiority  to  men,  was  true  or  not.  Since  then  twenty-four  ladies  have 
entered  the  university.  Thus  far  none  of  them  have  finished  the  course. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  if  they,  when  this  happens,  will  be  appointed  to  those 
public  offices  to  which  the  examinations  they  may  have  passed,  ought  to 
qualify  them.  As  a  result  of  this  throwing  open  the  university  to  women, 
most  of  the  normal  and  high  schools  leading  to  the  university,  were  opened 
for  girls,  and  great  hopes  for  the  future  of  the  woman  question,  must  be 
placed  in  this  co-education  of  the  sexes.  I  am  pleased  to  say  we  have 
imported  this  co-educational  system  from  the  United  States.  Mrs.  Ragna 
Nielsen,  a  very  bright  lady,  has  the  first  mixed  school  in  Christiania,  and  her 
work  seems  to  thrive. 

With  headquarters  in  Christiania,  and  branches  all  over  the  country,  is  an 
association  for  the  furtherance  of  woman's  rights;  men,  as  well  as  women, 
are  admissible  as  members,  and  the  number  grows  rapidly.  The  object  of 
this  association   is — through  meetings,  lectures,  and  since   1887  through  a 


280  International  Council  of  Women. 

semi-monthly  paper,  Nylaende — to  enlighten  the  public  as  to  the  true  object 
of  the  woman  question,  and  to  discuss  the  best  ways  of  furthering  this  ob- 
ject. The  editor  of  this  paper  is  Miss  Gina  Krog,  a  lady  ranking  among  the 
first,  of  those  who  have  espoused  the  cause  of  women  in  Norway.  On  the 
programme  of  this  association  is  also  woman  suffrage,  and  one  of  its  mem- 
bers, who  is  a  member  of  the  Storthing,  has  announced  that  he  will 
propose  for  the  legislature,  a  bill  granting  the  suffrage  to  women  under  the 
same  conditions  as  to  men.  Bills  changing  the  constitution  of  the  country 
must  in  Norway  be  proposed  three  years  before  they  can  be  acted  upon  ; 
and,  therefore,  this  bill  can  not  come  up  earlier  than  at  the  next  session  of  the 
Storthing.  Although  there  is  little  hope  of  its  being  carried  through,  the 
issue,  once  raised,  will  at  last  be  fought  to  victory.  The  chief  object  of  the 
association,  is  to  effect  that  radical  change  of  opinion  throughout  the  nation, 
that  must  necessarily  be  the  forerunner  of  any  change  in  law. 

Among  the  practical  objects  of  our  Women's  Association,  is  to  secure  for 
married  women  the  right  to  dispose  of  their  own  earnings  and  their  own 
property.  At  present  all  property  owned  by  either  husband  or  wife  is  con- 
sidered owned  by  them  both  in  common,  but  is  wholly  at  the  disposition  of 
the  husband  alone,  unless  it  has,  before  the  marriage,  been  expressly  agreed  to 
by  both  parties,  that  each  of  them  is  to  have  the  disposition  of  their  own  in- 
dividual property.  A  bill  making  this  latter  case  the  rule,  and  not  the  ex- 
ception, has  for  several  years  been  befQre  the  legislature,  but  has  as  yet  not 
been  passed. 

I  have  said  that  the  Norwegian  women,  as  women  everywhere  else  in  the 
world,  I  believe,  lack  initiative  faculty  and  originality.  In  one  respect, 
however,  they  show  more  common  sense  than  ladies  of  other  countries  that 
I  have  had  the  opportunity  to  see.  There  are  few  things  more  obstructing 
for  women  than  the  present  custom  of  dressing.  The  last  two  or  three  years 
in  Norway  have  produced  a  radical  change  in  this  respect.  An  originally 
American -Swedish  book  upon  dress  reform  was  some  years  ago  introduced  in 
Norway.  The  subject  of  dress  was  discussed  at  meetings  and  privately,  and, 
as  far  as  my  experience  goes,  ladies  have  begun  to  reform,  not  only  in  their 
thinking  about  ways  of  dressing,  but  also  in  practical  dressing.  Certainly 
we  have  not  been  able  to  dispose  of  the  petticoat,  and  will  not  be  able  to  do 
so  for  a  long  time,  I  fear;  but  we  reform  our  underclothing,  and  not  only 
working  women,  but  even  society  belles,  try  to  do  without  the  corset.  This 
is  to  me  a  good  sign,  for,  as  Gerrit  Smith  says  in  his  letter  to  Elizabeth  Cady 
Stanton,  1857,  "  the  relation  between  the  dress  and  degradation  of  a  woman, 
is  as  vital  as  between  the  uses  of  the  inmate  of  the  harem  and  the  apparel  and 
training  provided  for  her."  We  all  know  that  woman  can  not  reach  full 
development,  either  physically  or  morally,  until  she  arranges  her  dress  in 
accordance  with  nature's  demands.  And  as  our  great  poet,  Bjoernstjerne 
Bjoernson,  has  lately  said,  "If  women  only  knew  or  would  think  seriously 


Social  Purity.  281 

what  kind  of  ladies  they  are  striving  to  imitate  in  their  present  costumes, 
would  they  maintain  them?"  Bjoernson  here  seems  to  indicate  that  the  way  of 
dressing  has  relation  to  the  way  of  living,  and,  indeed,  the_  question  that  at  pres- 
ent attracts  most  attention,  not  only  in  Norway,  but  throughout  Scandinavia, 
is  that  of  social  purity.  No  wonder,  when  we  consider  the  wide  bearing  of 
this  question,  not  only  upon  the  present  generation,  but  also  upon  all  the 
future  life  of  the  people ;  also  here  the  issue  was  raised  by  one  of  our  poets, 
Bjoernstjerne  Bjoernson,  in  his  drama,  "EnHanske"  (A  Gauntlet),  which 
was  published  in  the  year  1883.  Here  he  answers  the  question,  "Has  a 
woman  a  right  to  expect  the  same  purity  in  her  future  husband  as  he  demands 
from  her?"  in  the  affirmative,  and  lets  his  heroine,  Svava,  refuse  her  lover 
and  affianced  husband,  when  she  learns  about  his  former  life.  He  tries  to 
persuade  her  that  men's  morality  must  not  be  judged  by  the  same  standard  as 
that  of  women,  and  then  she  throws  down  to  him  the  gauntlet. 

We  have  now  two  parties.  Bjoernson,  who  is  the  leader  of  the  largest  and 
most  powerful  party,  claims  that  marriage  ought  to  be,  as  it  now  is,  the  only 
legalized  form  for  men  and  women  living  together,  but  at  the  same  time  he 
wants  it  to  be  a  real  single  marriage.  He  will  that  men  be  pure  and  restrain 
their  passions  in  their  youth,  and  when  they  marry  they  shall  be  faithful  for 
life,  to  the  chosen  one.  The  other  party,  calling  themselves  the  Bohemians, 
have,  though  small  in  number,  made  a  great  noise,  and  some  of  their  leaders 
have  set  forth  their  views,  in  anything  but  an  attractive  and  sympathetic  man- 
ner. They  claim,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  understand,  that  neither  man 
nor  woman  ought  to  live  an  abstinent  life,  and  as  social  conditions  prevent 
marrying  at  an  early  age,  it  would  be  better  to  live  together  with  the  girl 
they  love,  than  for  young  men  to  go  to  the  prostituted  women,  or  for  women 
to  live  a  youth  without  love.  It  is  not  quite  clear  to  me,  and  I  do  not  think 
even  to  the  leaders  themselves,  how  their  idea  is  to  be  carried  out  practically  ; 
but  I  really  sympathize  with  the  thought  of  a  young  couple  living  and  work- 
ing together  in  their  youth,  especially  if  such  a  beginning  could  end  in 
faithful  love  for  life.  For  at  present  social  conditions  in  our  country,  are 
not  at  all  favorable  for  early  marriages.  Young  men  have  to  finish  their 
studies,  or  in  another  way  to  prepare  for  a  livelihood  during  so  many  weary 
years  of  their  youth,  that  they  may  be  twenty-five  years  or  more  before  they 
are  even  able  to  support  themselves.  The  American  fashion  of  boarding, 
that  seems  so  practical  for  y  oung  married  couples  of  limited  means,  is  un- 
known. Society  demands  that  the  husband  shall  bring  his  wife  to  a  fully 
and  nicely  furnished  home,  with  a  servant  girl  to  attend  to  the  household 
duties.  I  confess  those  young  homes,  where  the  husband  is  absent  all  day, 
striving  to  earn  the  money  necessary  for  housekeeping,  and  where  the  young 
wife,  who  may,  before  she  married,  have  been  earning  her  own  living,  has 
nothing  to  do  except  waiting  for  the  baby  that  is  to  come,  those  homes  leave 
a  painful  impression  with  me.  And  before  the  man  marries,  as  the  Bohe- 
19 


282  International  Council  of  Women. 

mians  say,  he  has  led  an  impure  life,  because  he  could  not  live  with  the  gir) 
he  loved,  unless  offering  her  such  a  sheltered  home.  However,  I  ought  to 
say  that  some  people  think  that  the  only  principle  of  the  Bohemians — and 
so  might,  perhaps,  be  the  case  with  some  of  them — is  to  yield  to  any  tempo- 
rary passion.  We  all  agree  that  this  obviously  is  an  abominable  principle. 
These  same  Bohemians  claim  that  sexual  abstinence  is  obnoxious  as  well  for 
women  as  for  men. 

Against  this  doctrine  and  against  this  party,  Bjoernson  has,  for  some  months 
past,  been  waging  a  relentless  war — lecturing  all  over  the  country.  He  con- 
tends that  nobody  was  ever  hurt  by  sexual  abstinence,  and  his  opinion  is  sus- 
tained by  the  medical  faculty  of  the  University  of  Chnstiania,  who,  in  an 
open  letter,  have  declared  it  their  belief,  that  moral  purity  tends  toward 
strengthening  mind  and  body,  and  is  of  benefit  for  the  physical  and  moral 
development. 

The  great  temptation  to  sin — the  public  houses  of  vice — have,  I  am  glad 
to  say,  been  closed  in  Christiania  since  February  15th,  this  year.  Our  organ- 
ization has  for  along  time  tried  to  get  prostitution  abolished,  and,  with  such 
a  helper  as  Bjoernson,  they  have  succeeded. 

This  whole  movement  might  seem  a  little  peculiar  in  a  country  where 
public  prostitution  has  never  existed ;  but  to  those  who  know  the  moral 
conditions  all  over  Europe,  it  is  no  wonder  that  this  question  has  been 
the  all-absorbing  topic  throughout  Scandinavia.  However,  according  to 
my  opinion,  there  has  been  too  much  talk  about  it  of  late.  Love  is 
not  the  only  thing  necessary  to  make  people  happy.  And  our  Women's 
Association,  in  the  paper  it  publishes,  has  in  this  fight  very  judiciously 
maintained  the  truth — that  the  first  and  most  important  thing  for  women 
is  economic  independence,  in  which  all  other  independence  roots.  But 
who  can  tell  in  what  time,  this  fact  will  be  clear  to  all  and  when  the 
work  for  independence  will  begin  in  earnest?  Women  in  Norway,  as 
anywhere  else,  consider  working  a  temporary  life  until  they  shall  marry,  and 
once  married  they,  as  anywhere  else,  abide  by  keeping  their  own  houses. 
Of  course  the  working  class  is  excepted  from  this  rule,  but  we  other  Nor- 
wegian women,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  are  still  far  from  aspiring  to  that  inde- 
pendence that  is  reached  by  steady  work  in  one  direction.  However,  that 
we  begin  to  understand  the  importance  of  this  question  is  shown  by  the 
great  interest  lately  taken  in  the  Swedish  author,  Mrs.  Edgreen's  "  En  Som- 
mersaga"  (A  Summer  Tale).  Mrs.  Edgreen  depicts  that  conflict  that  must 
necessarily  arise  in  a  marriage  where  the  work  for  which  the  wife  has  edu- 
cated herself,  and  to  which  she  has  given  up  her  life,  does  not  agree  with  her 
becoming  a  mother  and  keeping  house  at  that  place,  where  the  husband's 
business  makes  it  necessary  for  him  to  live.  It  is  this  question  that,  accord- 
ing to  my  opinion,  is  the  vital  one  in  the  whole  women's  rights  movement — 
the  question  how  women,  when  they  have  been  educated  for  an  independent 


Social  Purity.  28£ 

position,  shall  be  able  to  reconcile  this  position  with  their  duties  toward' 
husbands  and  children,  and  what  it  is  that  has  to  be  changed  ;  the  present: 
condition  of  companionship  between  man  and  woman,  or  the  men  and' 
women  within  the  limits  of  these  conditions. 

Mrs.  Harbert.  We  will  now  have  the  pleasure  of  listening  to  a  delegate 
from  the  National  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  Mrs.  Clara  Cleg- 
horne  Hoffman. 

Mrs.  Hoffman.  Some  learned  savant  has  said  that  whatever  of  good  we 
would  have  appear  in  the  national  life,  must  first  be  taught  in  the  schools  of 
the  country,  that  it  may  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  coming  citizen  in  the 
formative  period  of  his  life.  The  home  teaching  precedes  the  school,  and 
parents  teach,  not  only  by  precept  and  example,  but  by  that  subtle  trans- 
mission and  influence,  giving  the  first  germ  of  life  a  stamp  before  the  child 
even  sees  the  light  of  day;  then,  primary  in  this  discussion,  must  be  pre- 
natal influences  in  this  question  of  social  purity.  In  thousands  of  homes 
everything  seems  to  be  perfectly  pure,  perfectly  moral,  and  the  children  are 
tenderly  shielded  from  wrong,  the  boys  and  girls  and  their  associates  are 
tenderly  cared  for,  and  their  reading  carefully  chosen,  and  yet,  observation, 
as  well  as  statistics,  teaches  us  that  hundreds  go  forth  from  these  homes  to 
swell  the  ranks  of  recognized  prostitution,  while  thousands  more  go  forth  into 
the  ranks  of  legalized  prostitution  under  the  perfectly  respectable  mantle  of 
marriage. 

The  fires  of  passion  and  lust  lurk  in  those  homes  like  the  covered  fires 
of  Lucknow,  only  needing  the  occasion,  only  needing  the  temptation,  to 
burst  forth  into  flame,  carrying  death  and  destruction  to  every  pure,  and 
true,  and  lovely  attribute  of  heart  and  soul.  What  was  the  trouble?  Where 
was  the  failure?  Surely,  parents  have  failed  in  self-restraint,  and  this 
gratification,  this  indulgence  of  passion,  has  left  its  indelible  impress  upon 
the  young  life  they  have  created.  Everywhere  in  nature  we  see  God's 
beneficent  law  of  procreation.  We  also  see  that  the  beasts  of  the  field  and 
the  birds  of  the  air,  obey  this  law,  and  the  results  of  instinct  are  higher 
and  better  than  the  results  of  reason,  when  overcome  by  passion.  Yet 
reason  is  higher  than  instinct,  as  a  man  is  higher  than  the  brute  creation. 
Until  man  and  woman,  consorting  as  husband  and  wife,  to  found  the 
home,  to  bring  to  that  home  the  sweetness,  and  beauty,  and  grace  and 
blessedness  of  childhood,  shall  have  learned  a  wise,  a  humane,  and  a  Christian, 
self-restraint,  we  shall  make  slow  progress  in  social  purity. 

Self-restraint  in  marriage  is  more  the  exception  than  the  rule.  I  only 
have  to  appeal  to  those  that  have  had  much  to  do  with  women,  and  much  corre- 
spondence with  them  to  ratify  this,  and  this  is  true  among  the  cultured  and 
Christian.  Few  parents,  even  in  these  classes  of  cultured  and  Christian,  are 
wise  enough  and  chaste  enough,  to  regard  woman  during  the  period  of  ges- 
tation as  a  being  set  apart  to  holy  and  sacred  uses.     Neither  the  mother  nor 


284  International  Council  of   Women. 

the  father  of  the  young  life  that  she  is  cherishing  beneath  her  heart,  is  wise 
enough  and  chaste  enough  to  decide  that  no  passion  shall  touch,  no  breath 
of  lust  shall  sully,  the  temple  consecrated  to  that  profound  mystery,  the  gen- 
eration and  development  of  a  new  life. 

Mother  love  leads  her  to  comprehend  this  profound  mystery  which  is  going 
on  in  her  being,  and  this  eternal  law  that  must  be  fulfilled;  and  seeing  that, 
she  begins  to  reach  out  after  the  best  and  the  holiest,  for  the  young  life  that 
has  been  invoked.  Her  soul  is  filled  with  better  aspirations,  though  she  be 
ignorant,  though  she  be  degraded,  there  come  to  her  these  holy  question- 
ings that  never  were  there  before;  and  is  it  strange  that  she  should  say  in  the 
midst  of  all  this,  "the  life  that  I  am  to  bring  forth  into  the  world  is  the  highest 
form  of  creation,  and  I,  the  mother  of  that  highest  form  of  creation,  am  not  I 
.  worthy  of  the  care  and  the  consideration  that  is  given  to  the  finest  breed  of 
stock?  Is  not  the  child  that  I  shall  give  into  the  world  higher  and  nobler 
than  calf  or  foal  ?"  And  yet  such  consideration  is  not  shown,  and  my  soul  is 
hot  with  indignation  when  I  think  of  the  millions  of  pregnant  women  in  the 
world,  bowed  down  under  the  burdens  of  manual  toil,  and  yet  compelled  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  lust,  intensified  by  drink  and  by  tobacco.  *  *  * 

What  is  the  cure  ?  All  remedies  will  be  partial  and  disappointing  until 
women  stand,  everywhere,  on  perfect  equality  with  men  ;  until  the  church, 
and  the  law,  and  society,  recognize  marriage  as  a  partnership  in  which  she  is 
one  of  the  equal  partners.  Marriage  I  am  talking  about,  not  goods  and 
chattels  ;  and  until  then  this  horror  will  go  on,  of  lustful  children  brought 
into  life,  and  a  fresh  crop  again  to  perpetuate  and  intensify  the  cancer  that 
is  eating  out  the  life  of  the  nation.  Then,  and  not  until  then,  shall  we  be 
on  the  road  to  reform.  *  *  * 

Then  woman  will  honor  and  respect  herself,  and  man  will  honor  and 
cherish  her,  instead  of  loving  and  lusting  after  her.  Then  parents,  pure 
themselves,  will  have  no  shame  in  teaching  their  children  the  wondrous 
mysteries  of  their  own  being,  the  marvelous  functions  of  their  beautiful 
bodies.  Then  they  will  not  leave  to  servants,  often  degraded  and  ignorant,  and 
to  schoolmates  and  to  evil  books,  the  secrets  most  sacred  in  God's  universe 
to  be  imparted  to  their  children.  Then  children  will  be  born  who  can  say, 
"  My  strength  is  as  the  strength  of  ten,  because  my  heart  is  pure." 

Mrs.  Harbert.  I  present  the  following  paper  from  Mrs.  Lucinda  B. 
Chandler,  who  is  unable  to  be  present : 

MARRIAGE   REFORM. 

Three  measures  to  promote  social  purity  and  moral  education  are  called 
for :  mothers'  homes  or  mothergartens;  special  instruction  of  youth  to  fit 
them,  so  far  as  right  knowledge  and  spiritual  truth  can  do  so,  for  parenthood; 
and  universal  kindergarten  training.  The  mothergartens  should  give  refuge 
to  every  woman  and  wife  who,  during  gestation,  needs  the  blessed  influence 
of  a  real  home,  or  deliverance  from  the  so-called  marital  rights  of  our  in- 


Social  Purity.  285 

iquitous  legal  marriage  system.  Here  the  mother  should  be  helped  in  every 
manner  to  live  for  the  benefit  of  the  foetal  organism,  which  the  divine  power 
will  make  with  tendencies  upward  and  good,  if  the  mother  co-operates  by 
aspiration  and  earnest  desire,  when  obstructions  are  removed. 

It  is  the  riot  ofcarnalism,  which  the  license  of  marriage  claims  to  sanctify, 
that  perpetuates  the  lustful,  selfish  propensities  in  force  and  fury,  inten- 
sifies the  downward  revolution  of  the  life,  toward  the  animal,  and  cre- 
ates the  perversity  that  is  so  much  more  degraded  than  the  animal.  No  lan- 
guage can  properly  designate  it.  Woman's  era  implies  and  involves  a  re- 
form of  the  relations  of  man  and  woman,  as  conjugal  partners  and  as  parents. 
In  this  reform  lies  the  possibility  of  eliminating  the  shocking  barbarities  by 
which  civilization  is  disgraced.  Man's  legal  institution  of  marriage  was 
based  upon  the  idea  that  woman's  office  in  social  economy  is  chiefly  that  of 
child-bearer.  Laws  were  made  requiring  the  husband  to  provide  for  his  own 
children,  and  to  protect  him  from  the  possibility  of  becoming  responsible 
for  the  support  of  those  of  another  man.  Man-made  laws  have  placed  the 
control  of  the  person  of  the  wife  in  his  discretion,  like  any  other  property. 
Church  and  State  have  combined  to  deprive  womanhood  of  its  sanctity  in 
wifehood,  and  to  rob  the  mother  both  of  her  natural  right  to  choose  its  ex- 
ercise and  to  legally  possess  the  child  she  has  borne. 

Woman  as  well  as  man  must  eliminate  from  marriage  the  features  of  pros- 
titution, for  when  prostitution  ceases  inside  of  marriage  it  will  disappear 
outside.  The  repeal  of  the  law  of  coverture,  leaving  the  wife  free  to  main- 
tain her  self-respect  and  to  determine  the  exercise  of  her  function  of  ma- 
ternity, will  confer  the  greatest  service  legislation  can  render.  We  have  the 
important  lesson  to  learn  that  purity,  moral  advancement,  and  the  higher 
humanity,  can  not  be  evolved  by  statute.  The  key-note  of  the  new  dispen- 
sation is  spiritual  truth.  Man  is  a  soul  force,  capable  of  becoming  an  agency 
of  divine  power,  not  chiefly  an  animal  organism  endowed  with  intelligence. 
How  shall  woman  be  educated  to  know  she  has  the  right  to  control  her 
owrTperson?  By  listening  to  the  voice  of  her  own  soul,  setting  aside  every 
inbred  idea  that  has  come  down  from  male  theology  and  statute.  Man  is 
no  more  qualified  to  teach  woman,  in  regard  to  the  requirements  of  her 
being,  as  the  mother  of  the  race,  as  race  builder,  than  he  is  to  fulfill  the 
function  of  maternity.  Ask  the  truth  in  your  own  soul  fervently,  and  dare 
to  obey  its  light.  "  They  who  sow  to  the  flesh  shall,  of  the  flesh,  reap  cor- 
ruption." A  ceremony  and  a  legal  permit  do  not  change  the  procedure  of 
that  law.  Read  a  lesson,  too,  from  the  animal  kingdom,  and  see  what  the 
unerringness  of  instinct  illustrates.  And  is  the  mother  of  men  rightly  a 
slave  when  no  female  below  her  is  so  degraded  ?  Study  the  evidences  scat- 
tered thickly  in  the  history  of  motherhood  showing  how  mighty  is  the  influ- 
ence on  pre-natal  life  of  the  mental  and  emotional  force  of  the  mother. 
Power  is  the  measure  of  responsibility.  *  *  * 


286  International  Council  of  Women. 

A  resolution  was  adopted  to  send  cablegrams  of  greeting 
to  Mrs.  Priscilla  Bright  McClaren,  Mrs.  Elmy,  Mrs.  Jacob 
Bright,  Mrs.  Josephine  E.  Butler,  to  Queen  Victoria,  to  the 
Empress  of  Germany,  and  to  the  Crown  Princess  of  Denmark. 

Mrs.  Harbert.  It  is  now  my  pleasure  to  present  Miss  Willard,  who  will 
give  us  the  benediction  upon  the  subject  that  is  before  us. 

Miss  Anthony.  There  has  been  a  bill  presented  by  Miss  Willard,  asking 
Congress  to  pass  a  law  to  raise  the  age  of  consent  to  eighteen  years  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  and  the  Territories,  and  the  members  of  Congress  ask 
that  this  petition  be  signed,  first  by  the  officers  and  then  by  as  many  members 
of  this  Council  as  possible.  It  will  be  in  room  41  in  the  Riggs  House 
during  to-day  and  to-morrow,  and  I  hope  every  woman  present  will  call  and 
sign  this  petition. 

Miss  Willard.  I  trust  you  will  all  feel  there  is  an  absolute  obligation 
laid  upon  you  as  the  result  of  what  has  passed  through  your  brain  and  heart 
this  morning,  to  put  your  names  to  this  petition.  It  has  been  circulated 
from  one  end  of  this  country  to  the  other,  and,  notwithstanding  a  large 
majority  of  us  who  are  present,  have  not  put  our  names  upon  it  yet,  let  us 
remember  that  it  is  a  most  important  petition. 

Now,  in  closing  this  magnificent  meeting,  a  poor  little  Protestant  nun 
comes  before  you,  and  feels  that  she  hasn't  much  right  to  talk  to  you  at  all ; 
feels  that  the  high  and  solemn  mysteries,  that  have  been  spoken  of  in  such 
varied  tone  and  manner  to-day,  are  those  that  she  ought  not  to  try  to  deal 
with ;  feels  more  than  ever,  the  inadequacy  of  one  whose  life  has  been 
apart,1  to  try  to  speak  of  these  things.  All  the  time  these  ladies  have 
spoken  so  bravely,  or  so  tenderly,  on  this  historic  morning,  my  thoughts 
have  been  at  work.  I  have  seemed  to  see  those  two  who  went  forth  hand  in 
hand  from  Eden  on  the  saddest  of  all  mornings,  after  the  fall,  and  I  have  said 
in  my  heart,  Oh,  if  those  clasped  hands  had  never  parted  company,  our  poor 
world  had  been  to-day  the  place  God  wants  to  see  it,  and  the  place  that  Christ 
came  to  make  it.  I  have  said  in  my  heart,  would  that  the  other  half  of  the 
audience  were  here.  This  is  only  half  the  circle  ;  we  ought  to  have  had  it 
builded  out  and  had  the  others  here.  So  I  have  only  to  offer  you  the 
thought,  that  every  objection  that  has  been  brought  forward,  every  philosoph- 
ical statement  that  has  been  made,  is  based  upon,  that  out  of  the  aggrega- 
tion of  men  by  themselves,  always  comes  harm;  out  of  the  coming  of  men 
and  women  into  true,  and  noble,  and  high  conditions,  side  by  side,  always 
comes  good.  Where  is  it  that  you  have  this  curse  most  deeply  rooted  and 
most  apologized  for,  by  men  ?  In  the  camps  of  the  soldiery.  What 
would  woman's  coming  forward  into  that  life  tend  to  bring  about?  The 
reign  of  peace.  The  mother  heart  that  can  not  be  legislated  in  and  can 
not  be  legislated  out  would  say:  "  I  will  not  give  my  sons  to  be  butchered 
in  great  battles,"  and  we  would  have  arbitration. 


Social  Purity.  287 

My  noble  friend,  who  spoke  so  bravely,  Mrs.  Hoffman,  said:  "I  call  mar- 
riage a  contract,  because  I  don't  think  of  just  the  word  I  mean  j  and  I  do  not 
mean  a  contract  as  to  goods  and  chattels.  Until  woman  has  complete 
industrial  freedom,  marriage  is  an  industrial  contract ;  until  woman  has  the 
purse  jointly  in  her  hand,  marriage  will  never  be  the  thing  we  want  to  see  it." 
This  question  resolves  itself  into  all  the  magnificent  enterprises  represented 
by  these  women  who  stand  on  this  platform,  while  doubtless  you  who  are 
here  in  the  audience,  stand  just  as  true  in  your  own  circles.  So  that  my 
heart  is  full  of  hope,  and,  out  of  the  long  savagery,  and  darkness,  and  crime, 
I  see  you  coming  up  amid  the  brightness  and  the  beauty  of  a  new  civili- 
zation. I  see  that  the  noblest  men  of  the  world's  noblest  race,  the  men  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  who  made  this  audience  possible;  the  men  who  have 
thus  striven  and  worked  side  by  side  with  us,  to  bring  about  these  great 
conditions,  shall  place  upon  woman's  brow  the  crown  of  Minerva,  and  lead 
us  forward  to  help  them  make  a  new  government,  so  I  speak  to  you  the  words 
of  hope.  There  is  nothing  on  this  earth  that  I  tried  more  earnestly  to 
instill  into  my  girls'  hearts,  when  I  was  teaching,  than  a  superior,  womanly 
self-respect.  I  doubt  if  we  have  it  as  the  women  of  the  future  will,  or  as  we 
ought  to  have  it  ourselves. 

Why,  I  pass  signs  in  the  street ;  I  pass  exhibitions  of  women  in  the  cigar 
stores  and  saloons  that,  if  we  were  as  self-respectful  as  we  ought  to  be, 
couldn't  stay  there  over  night;  I  see  beautiful  women  in  beautiful  robes 
walking  on  the  streets,  or  hear  of  them  in  fine  social  surroundings,  with  a 
man  at  their  side,  puffing  tobacco-smoke  into  their  faces  and  eyes  ;'  and  I 
say  that  is  a  survival  of  past  savagery,  and  debasement,  and  immolation  of 
woman.  If  there  is  anything  on  earth  I  covet  that  pertains  to  men  it  is  their 
self-respect.  No  man  would  be  seen  with  a  woman  with  the  faintest  tint  or 
tinge  of  tobacco  about  her  ;  no  man  would  allow  himself  to  enter  into  mar- 
riage with  a  woman  of  known  habits  of  drinking  or  impurity  ;  it  isn't  think- 
able. When  I  see  women  coming  out  before  men,  or  when  I  know  they  do — 
I  do  not  see  them,  they  are  not  women  with  whom  I  am  socially  acquainted — 
revealing  the  sacredness  of  the  pure  symbol  and  badge  of  their  womanly 
nature,  coming  out  so  that  the  joke,  and  jest,  and  jibe,  are  uttered  in  the  ante- 
room, where  young  men  smoke  cigars  and  hob-nob  together,  I  say  I  could 
weep  my  life  out  that  a  woman  thus  appears,  thus  decked,  thus  dressed,  bor- 
rowing that  style  from  women  the  hem  of  whose  garments  she  would  be 
ashamed  to  touch  Let  us  have  self-respect.  Let  us  be  clothed  w  ith  a 
raiment  of  purity  that  ought  to  guard  the  virgin,  the  mother,  and  the  wife. 

When  we  assemble  socially  and  allow  scenes  to  be  put  before  us  that 
are  indecorous  and  shameful,  we  have  passed  from  the  purity  and  self- 
respect  that  must  and  shall  characterize  the  woman  of  the  future.  Oh, 
friends,  these  things  are  so  deep  in  my  heart !  Girls  come  and  ask  me, 
"  Would  you  dance  round  dances?  "     "  Oh,  my  sister,  my  dear  little  sister, 


288  International  Council  of  Women. 

no  ;  don't  dance  a  round  dance."  The  woman  of  the  future  will  not  do  it. 
I  walked  the  aisles  of  the  picture  galleries  of  Europe.  I  saw  the  men  in 
those  great  historic  paintings,  with  their  ear-rings  and  their  fingers  covered 
with  rings,  bedecked  with  ruffles,  and  dressed  in  all  the  hues  that  the  peacock 
and  rainbow  could  supply.  That  was  the  time  when  King  Louis  XIV.  said  : 
"  The  State,  it  is  I."  They  were  nothing  but  a  parcel  of  courtiers.  When 
a  woman  shall  be  able  to  say  to  the  State,  "  I  am  part  of  you  just  as  much  as 
anything  that  breathes;  "  when  she  shall  say,  "  I  am  part  of  society,  I  am  part 
of  the  industrial  value,  I  am  part  of  everything  that  a  man  values;  everything 
that  a  man's  brain  loves  to  think  about  in  philosophy,  in  philanthropy,  or 
history,  or  science,  I  think  about  it  in  the  same  lines,"  then  the  calm  equi- 
poise shall  come ;  and  for  that  I  would  like  to  live ;  for  that  I  would  like  to 
speak.  Persons  who  know  more  about  it  than  I  tell  me  that  women  who 
give  their  lives  to  shame,  women  who  are  on  the  street-corners  with  their  in- 
vitations at  night,  are  women  who  have,  from  the  very  look  of  the  face  an  d 
configuration  of  the  head,  the  symbols  and  emblems  of  no  self-respect.  The 
superior,  queenly  woman  is  the  one  that  has  the  most  self-respect,  and  sees  its 
application  to  everything  around  her,  and  makes  every  man  feel  that  he  would 
as  soon  die,  as  offer  her  an  insult. 

The  brothers  of  women —  the  Arabs  love  to  say  of  a  pure  man  that  he 
is  a  brother  of  girls — the  brotherly  men  will  come  forward  to  meet  and 
respond  to- the  sisterly  women.  When  we  are  not  toys,  when  we  are  not 
dolls  but  duchesses,  when  we  stand  before  them  royal,  crowned  with  heart  of 
love  and  brain  of  fire,  then  shall  come  the  new  day.  I  ignore  nothing  that 
has  been  said.  I  am,  in  hearty  sympathy  with  all.  But,  in  my  own  thought, 
this  has  come  as  the  key-note  that  must  be  struck.  God  grant  that  we  may 
be  so  loving  and  so  gentle  in  it  all,  that  there  shall  be  no  vanity,  no  pride,, 
for  the  grandest  natures  are  the  humblest. 

Let  me  speak  a  word  of  hope.  I  have  heard  this  statement  from  a  woman 
who  has  come  from  Germany,  a  woman  for  years  a  student  in  the  universi- 
ties. She  says  the  professors'  wives  tell  her  that  the  new  science  has  devel- 
oped this  thought,  and  that  professors  are  saying  to  their  young  men:  "If  you 
want  a  scintillating  brain,  if  you  want  magnificent  power  of  imagination, 
conserve  every  force,  be  as  chaste  as  your  sister  is,  and  put  your  power  into 
that  brain  that  throbs  like  an  untired  engine."  *  *  *  I  do  not  know  how 
you  feel,  but  I  want  to  take  this  woman  by  the  hand,  this  sweet-faced  and 
sweet-voiced  English  woman,  who,  last  night  when  all  of  us  were  asleep,, 
went  out  into  the  holiness  of  the  moonlight  and  saw  that  our  capital  was  not 
so  bad  as  London  ;  this  woman  who  went  to  see  the  little  girl  that  hadn't 
been  taught  and  hadn't  been  helped,  and  came  from  her  country  home  and 
was  getting  entangled  in  the  meshes  of  that  great  Babylon.  God  bless  you, 
Mrs.  Chant,  you  are  welcome  to  America.     I  thought,  while  you  were  speak- 


Social  Purity.  289 

ing,  of  what  our  Whitrier  said  of  the  countries  "  Unknown  to  other  rivalries 

than  of  the  mild  humanities  and  gracious  interchange  of  good — 

"  While  met  beneath  protecting  fla*rs  we  closer  stand— 
The  eagle  of  our  native  crags,  the  lion  of  our  mother  land." 

We  women  are  clasping  hands.  You  do  not  know  how  much  it  means.  I 
have  sought  this  woman  from  over  the  water.  I  wanted  her  to  come  over 
here  with  her  large  experience  in  the  work.  I  have  not  seen  so  many  sor- 
rowful girls,  and  don't  know  how  to  reach  them,  only  in  a  general  way ;  and 
I  have  asked  her  if  she  will  stay  and  teach  us,  and  she  says  she  will  stay  in 
America,  if  we  want  her.  Are  you  not  glad  ?  So  understand  that  the  Na- 
tional Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  is  going  to  keep  Mrs.  Chant 
here  and  send  her  about  with  her  sweet  evangelism.  Now  I  think,  dear 
friends,  that  we  have  certainly  this  morning  boxed  the  compass  of  this  won- 
derful thought. 

The  following  letters  to  the  Council  refer  directly  to  the  sub- 
ject of  this  session: 

The  York  Branch  of  the  Ladies'  National  Association 

For  the  Abolition  of  Government  Regulation  of  Yice. 

To  Mrs.  E.  C.  Stanton,  Washington, 

President  of  the  International  Council  of  Women : 
Madam  :  We,  the  committee  of  the  above  association,  rejoice  in  the  event  of  the 
assembling  of  your  great  International  Convention.  We  send  you  our  hearty  greet- 
ing, and  desire  to  express  our  earnest  interest  and  sympathy.  May  your  counsels 
promote  largely  the  noble  idea  of  an  universal  sisterhood  of  women,  binding  hearts 
together,  the  world  over,  in  one  common  effort  to  elevate  our  womanhood. 

May  the  interchange  of  opinions  on  the  great  questions  which  come  before  you 
for  consideration,  arouse  new  desires,  promote  fresh  efforts,  and  lead  to  devising 
effective  methods  toward  enabling  women  to  occupy  their  right  and  proper  places, 
side  by  side  with  men  in  the  affairs  of  the  home,  the  church,  and  the  State.  We 
crave  that  you  may  be  rightly  guided  in  all  your  decisions.  May  the  blessing  of 
Almighty  God  rest  upon  your  assembly.  ' 
We  are  your  sisters. 
Signed  on  behalf  of  the  above  section  of  the  Social  Purity  Organizations, 

Lucretia  H.  Kendall  Clark,  9  Feversham  Terrace,  York. 
Mary  G.  Barron,  Eon.  Treasurer. 

Maria  Richardson,  Hon.  Secretary,  Cherry  Hill  House,  York. 
York,  March  12,  1888. 

National  Vigilance  Association, 
267  Strand,  London,  W.  C. ,  March,  1888. 
To  the  Women's  Congress,  Washington,  IT.  S.  A. 

Ladies:  The  National  Vigilance  Association  desire  to  offer  you  their  congratula- 
tions on  the  important  Congress  which  you  have  this  year  assembled.  They  recog- 
nize the  teaching  of  history  that  the  position  of  women  is  the  touchstone  of  ^civili- 
zation, and  trust  the  outcome  of  your  labors  will  be  to  give  great  impulse  to  the 
many  movements  for  the  elevation  of  women,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 


290  International  Council  of  Women. 

This  association  was  formed  nearly  three  years  ago,  and  has  for  its  principal  object 
the  protection  of  the  virtue  of  young  girls  from  force  and  fraud.  It  also  suppresses 
houses  of  ill-fame,  checks  the  fraudulent  export  and  import  of  girls,  watches  reg- 
istry offices  and  generally  gives  gratuitous  advice  and  assistance  to  all  comers  within 
the  scope  of  its  objects.  The  work  of  its  Organizing,  Legal,  Parliamentary,  Rescue 
and  Preventive,  Literature,  Foreign  Traffic,  and  Finance  Sub-Committees,  needs  no 
detailing  here. 

Such  being  its  general  scope,  the  association  commends  its  work  to  the  attention 
of  the  Congress  as  one  specially  engaging  to  women.  It  seeks  the  relief  of  large 
numbers  of  young  women  from  a  practical  slavery,  into  which  they  are  betrayed  by 
persons  who  take  shameful  advantage  of  their  inexperience,  and  only  too  often  use 
an  actual  force  worthy  only  of  savage  and  barbarous  counti'ies. 

In  particular,  the  Rescue  and  Preventive,  and  the  Foreign  Traffic  Sub- Committees 
of  the  Association  desire  to  bring  before  the  Congress  several  special  topics  on  which 
interchange  of  thought  and  concerted  action  between  American  and  English  socie- 
ties seem  desirable,  and  with  that  view  submit  separate  memoranda  which  are 
appended. 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  National  Vigilance  Association, 

Percy  William  Bunting, 
Chairman  of  Executive  Committee. 

NATIONAL  VIGILANCE  ASSOCIATION. 

We  desire  to  express  our  warm  sympathy  with  the  members  of  the  Women's 
International  Council,  about  to  meet  in  Washington,  in  their  various  and  earnest 
efforts  to  promote  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  women.  We  feel  that  by 
intercommunication  of  the  two  nations,  much  mutual  assistance  can  be  given. 

For  some  time  past  we  have  been  seriously  considering  the  condition  of  children 
in  theaters,  pantomimes,  and  music  halls.  We  are  informed  that  English  children 
are  every  year  taken  to  America  and  other  countries,  in  traveling  companies,  to  per- 
form in  the  great  towns,  and  that  their  moral  surroundings  are  fraught  with  the 
gravest  peril.  We  understand  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  the  United 
States  that  children  of  very  tender  years,  should  be  thus  employed.  But  owing 
to  the  short  time  that  the  companies  remain  in  each  locality,  and  to  the  cumbrous 
nature  of  legal  institutions,  these  companies  have  made  their  harvest  and  are  off, 
before  any  proceedings  can  be  taken.  We  should  be  glad  to  rouse  the  attention  of 
the  Council  to  this  subject. 

We  believe  that  already  much  care  is  taken  by  the  emigration  authorities  as  to 
the  safety  of  girls  arriving  at  the  ports,  but  that  there  is  still  a  large  amount  of 
leakage.  This,  perhaps,  is  not  wholly  avoidable,  but  still  we  think  that  too  much 
care  can  not  be  taken,  to  ensure  that  these  newly-arriving  emigrants,  who  might  be 
so  profitable  as  servants,  and  in  other  capacities,  to  those  in  whose  country  they 
come  to  reside,  should  not,  on  first  coming,  fall  into  such  evil  hands  as  shall  make 
them  forever  afterward  worthless  to  society,  and  probably  a  heavy  pecuniary  bur- 
den on  it.  The  case  of  Mormon  girls  and  women  is  a  serious  one.  They  go  over, 
unobserved,  from  our  country  as  ordinary  emigrants,  but  are  really  in  the  hands  of 
those  who,  under  various  pretexts,  get  them  away  to  Utah.  Some  inquiry  having 
been  made  on  the  arrival  of  suspected  parties  in  New  York,  we  understand  they 
now  go  by  another  route,  so  that  detection  is  difficult. 

We  should  be  glad  to  know  if  there  is  any  aim  in  the  various  States  to  raise  to 
uniformity  the  age  of  protection  of  young  girls.    We  understand  that  it  ranges  from 


Social  Purity.  291 

twelve  to  twenty-one  in  the  different  States.  We  should  like  to  know  the  opinion 
of  the  Congress  as  to  the  age  to  which  it  should  be  raised.  We  in  England  are  anxious 
that  it  should  be  raised  to  at  least  eighteen.  By  our  act  of  1885  it  was  raised  to  six- 
teen. 

We  should  like  to  know  what  regulations  are  in  force  in  the  United  States,  as  to 
the  provision  of  female  police  officers  for  the  supervision  of  the  women  arrested  and 
temporarily  confined  in  police  cells.  At  present  in  this  country,  although  no  male 
warders,  etc.,  are  allowed  on  the  female  side  of  our  prisons,  no  similar  precaution  is 
observed  in  police  cells,  where  men  only  are  employed.  We  are  endeavoring  to  get 
this  altered,  and  we  should  be  very  glad  to  be  in  possession  of  the  experience  of 
other  countries  on  the  subject.  / 

Finally,  we  should  be  glad  to  know  the  views  of  the  Council  on  the  question  of 
the  occupation  of  girls  rescued  from  a  life  of  vice;  what  their  opinion  is  as  to  homes, 
and  the  length  of  time  to  be  spent  there;  also,  whether  they  think  the  greater  free- 
dom of  girls  in  all  classes  in  America  tends  to  a  higher  tone  of  morality  or  to  its 
relaxation. 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Preventive  and  Rescue  Sub-Committee, 

Millicent  Garret  Fawcett. 
Annette  Bear. 

national  vigilance  association. 

The  Foreign  Traffic  Sub-Committee  is  using  its  best  powers  to  prevent  young 
women  being  induced  by  fraud  to  go  abroad  into  houses  of  ill-fame,  or  into  occupa- 
tions of  evil  character,  or  which  would  lead  to  their  ruin.  The  main  labors  of 
this  committee  have  been  directed  to  the  continent  of  Europe,  but  they  take  this 
opportunity  of  laying  before  the  women  of  America  this  important  matter,  and  of 
asking  whether  they  will  co-operate  with  this  Association,  in  securing  proper  super- 
vision in  immigrant  vessels  on  the  ocean,  and  in  preventing  those  who  trade  in  the 
vice  of  others  in  the  United  States,  either  from  importing  women  by  fraud  from 
abroad,  or  in  getting  hold  of  them  at  the  immigration  depots  in  New  York  and 
elsewhere. 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  committee  for  the  Suppression  of  Foreign  Traffic, 

Elizabeth  S.  Lidgett. 

The  session  closed  with  the  singing  of  "America." 


FEIDAY,  MARCH  30,  1888. 

EVENING  SESSION. 


POLITICAL     CONDITIONS. 


Miss  Anthony  presiding.  Invocation  by  the  Rev.  Amanda 
Deyo. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  have  now  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Mrs.  Isabella 
Beecher  Hooker,  of  Connecticut. 

THE    CONSTITUTIONAL   RIGHTS   OF   WOMEN    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

Mrs.  Hooker.  In  the  month  of  August,  1774,  that  eminent  statesman 
and  true  patriot,  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  a  little  tract  entitled  "A  Summary 
View  of  the  Rights  of  British  America,"  used  certain  words,  which  I  will 
take  for  my  text.  "  The  whole  art  of  government  consists  in  the  art  of 
being  honest."  And  again  :  "  The  God  who  gave  us  life,  gave  us  liberty  at 
the  same  time;  the  hand  of  force  may  destroy,  but  can  not  disjoin,  them." 

I  ask  your  patient  attention  while  I  attempt  to  show,  first,  that 
under  a  proper  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  he  had  so  large  a  part  in  preparing,  women  have  a  right  to  vote — to- 
day, now,  this  moment — on  precisely  the  same  terms  with  men ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, that  they  ought,  for  various  reasons,  to  exercise  this  right  without 
molestation,  and  men  ought  to  help  them  to  do  so  by  every  means  in  their 
power. 

In  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  there  is  not  a  line  nor  a  word  for- 
bidding women  to  vote,  but,  properly  interpreted  by  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  the  assertions  of  the  fathers,  it  actually  guarantees  to  women 
the  right  to  vote  in  all  elections,  both  State  and  national.  The  preamble  to 
the  Constitution  is  the  key  to  what  follows — it  is  the  concrete  statement  of 
the  great  principles  which  subsequent  articles  express  in  detail.  It  says : 
•'We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect 
union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common 
defense,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the 
United  States  of  America."  Women  are  "people  "  surely,  and  desire,  as 
much  as  men  to  say  the  least,  to  establish  justice  and  to  insure  domestic  tran- 
quillity ;  and,  brothers,  you  will  never  insure  domestic  tranquillity  in  the  days 
to  come,  unless  you  allow  women  to  vote  who  pay  taxes  and  bear  equally  with 
yourselves  all  the  burdens  of  society,  for  they  do  not  mean  any  longer  to 
endure  patiently  and  quietly  such  injustice,  and  the  sooner  men  understand 
this  and  graciously  submit  to  become  the  political  equals  of  their  mothers, 


Political  Conditions.  293 

wives,  and  daughters — aye,  of  their  grandmothers,  for  that  is  my  category — 
instead  of  their  political  masters,  as  they  now  are,  the  sooner  will  this  precious 
domestic  tranquillity  be  insured.  Women  were  surely  "  people  "  when  these 
words  were  written,  and  were  as  anxious  as  men  to  establish  justice  and  promote 
the  general  welfare,  and  no  one  will  have  the  hardihood  to  deny  that  our  fore- 
mothers  did  their  full  share  in  the  work  of  establishing  justice,  providing  for 
the  common  defense,  and  promoting  the  general  welfare  in  all  those  early 
days.  When  liberties  had  to  be  gained  by  the  sword  and  protected  by  the 
sword,  men  necessarily  came  to  the  front  and  seemed  to  be  the  only  defenders 
of  these  liberties  ;  hence  all  the  way  down,  women  have  been  content  to  do 
their  patriotic  work  silently  and  through  men,  who  are  the  fighters  by  nature ; 
but  now,  at  last,  when  it  is  established  that  ballots  instead  of  bullets  are  to 
rule  the  world,  it  is  high  time  that  women  ceased  to  attempt  to  establish 
justice,  promote  the  general  welfare  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
themselves  and  their  posterity,  through  the  votes  of  men,  because  they  can 
not  control  these  votes  and  turn  them  to  high  moral  uses  in  government. 

The  Constitution,  which  became  the  law  of  the  land  in  1789,  embraced  in 
its  provisions  women  as  well  as  men,  and  the  word  "  people,"  so  frequently 
used,  always  included  them.  This  is  true  of  the  four  articles  which  I  will 
consider,  and  of  every  other  article  in  the  Constitution,  where  the  word 
people  is  used.  Article  I  of  the  amendments  is :  "  The  right  of  the  people 
to  peaceably  assemble  and  petition  for  a  redress  of  grievances,"  etc.  No 
one  doubts  that  women  have  that  right  equally  with  men  ;  in  fact,  it  is  about 
the  only  political  right  that  is  cheerfully  accorded  to  us  to-day,  because  it  is 
so  easy  to  get  rid  of  us  and  silence  us  in  that  way.  For  years  and  years 
women  have  been  petitioning  Congress  and  the  State  legislatures  to  take 
down  the  political  bars  which  men  have  put  up,  contrary  to  the  whole  spirit 
of  our  Government,  and  allow  them  to  become  active  co-workers  in  pro- 
moting the  general  welfare  ;  but  the  reply  has  been,  "  leave  to  withdraw," 
or  its  equivalent,  simply  because  these  petitioners  had  no  power  to  cut  off 
the  heads  of  these  Congressmen  and  Assemblymen,  their  political  heads,  I 
mean,  because  we  do  not  believe  in  bloodshed  of  any  sort.  So  long  ago  as 
1871,  I  got  an  order  from  a  Senator  to  search  the  Secretary's  office  for  peti- 
tions then  on  file,  and  the  clerk  found  the  names  of  20,000  women  slumber- 
ing in  the  dusty  pigeon-holes  in  his  office,  and  the  honorable  gentleman, 
who  asked  me  with  a  smile  of  contempt,  "  How  many  women  really  wanted 
to  vote?  "  was  surprised  at  the  record,  which  was  not  a  tenth  part  of  the 
number  that  had  been  wearily  petitioning  our  legislative  bodies  year  after 
year  since  1848. 

Article  II,  with  its  provisions  for  "  the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear 
arms,"  etc.,  which  right  women  assuredly  have  equally  with  men,  and  which, 
unless  some  new  protective  element  is  brought  into  society,  women  will  be 
compelled  to  use  in  self-defense  ;  for  the  crimes  against  woman  in  her  very 


294  International  Council  of  Women. 

womanhood,  are  becoming  unendurably  frequent  all  over  our  land.  The  one 
protective  element  is  the  ballot  in  her  own  hands,  since  it  is  already 
in  the  hands  of  the  ruffians  who  make  night  hideous,  and  who  virtually 
close  the  thoroughfares  of  our  cities  and  villages,  even  to  honest  women, 
the  moment  the  sun  has  gone  down.  Have  you  ever  thought  of  it,  gentle- 
men ?  You  who  are  opposed  to  woman's  use  of  the  ballot,  that  among  her 
so-called  protectors,  who  are  to  use  her  ballot  for  her,  are  these  very  men 
for  whom  we  build  our  jails  and  penitentiaries,  taxing  the  women  to  do  it, 
and  that  every  election  day  sees  paupers  and  vagrants  taken  from  the  work- 
houses, to  elect  the  men  who  are  to  make  and  administer  the  laws  for  all 
women  ? 

Article  IV  provides  for  the  right  of  "  the  people  to  be  secure  against  unrea- 
sonable searches  and  seizures,"  etc.  Women  surely  need  to  be  thus  secured. 
And  Article  IX  provides  that  the  "  enumeration  in  the  Constitution  of  certain 
rights  shall  not  be  construed  to  deny  others  retained  by  the  people."  Is  it 
not  perfectly  cle?r  that  all  these  are  the  rights  of  women  equally  with  men, 
and  that  the  term  "  people  "  as  here  used,  was  intended  to  embrace  both? 

Thus,  then,  the  preamble  and  the  Constitution,  under  which  our  Govern- 
ment was  formed  and  began  its  work  of  protective  legislation,  plainly  em- 
braced women  in  all  their  provisions,  and  when  the  preamble  declares  that 
the  object  of  all  was  "  to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our 
posterity,"  it  surely  did  not  mean  to  secure  these  blessings  of  liberty  to  the 
half  of  ourselves  and  the  half  of  our  posterity,  but  to  the  whole  people, 
women  as  well  as  men.  And  note  again  the  word  *'  secure  "  in  this  pream- 
ble, which  is  scarcely  less  important  than  the  word  "people."  "Secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity" — not  give,  but  secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty,  to  those  who  already  had  the  right  to  them  from  God, 
and  who  were  coming  together  for  purposes  of  defense,  as  against  an  outside 
world  that  still  insisted  that  liberty  was  not  the  right  of  the  many,  but  of  the 
few,  who  might  be  able  to  overthrow  this  right  of  individuals  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  unless  they  combined  together  to  secure  it. 

And  this  is  where  the  Declaration  of  Independence  comes  in  as  an  inter- 
preter of  the  Constitution,  and  it  utters  no  uncertain  voice  on  this  question 
as  to  who  are  the  people  meant  in  the  preamble  and  articles  following.  It 
says:  "We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident"  (mark  that  self-evident ; 
that  is,  that  they  require  no  proof)  ;  "  that  all  men  are- created  equal ;  that 
they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ;  that  to  secure 
these  rights  "  (here  again  is  the  word  "  secure,"  not  give,  grant,  or  bestow) 
"governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed"  (not  from  the  consent  of  half  the  governed — 
the  consent  of  the  male  half — but  the  governed),  and  that  "  whenever  any 
form  of  government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the 


Political  Conditions.  295 

people  to  alter  or  abolish  it,  and  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its 
foundations  on  such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to 
them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness."  That  is 
to  say,  the  fathers,  in  Congress  assembled  in  Philadelphia  on  the  4th  of  July, 
1776,  proclaimed  over  the  whole  earth,  that  governments  derive  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  that  taxation  without  repre- 
sentation is  tyranny,  and  for  the  support  of  this  declaration,  with  a  firm 
reliance  on  the  protection  of  divine  Providence,  they  mutually  pledged  to 
each  other  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor  ;  and  yet  we 
are  told  to-day  that  the  women  of  these  States  have  no  right  to  vote  until 
the  men,  who  alone  have  been  in  the  habit  of  voting,  shall  make  some  new 
and  special  laws  to  meet  their  case  ;  in  other  words,  till  men  shall  give 
and  grant  women  a  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness — a 
right  to  promote  the  general  welfare — a  right  to  establish  justice  and  secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty  to  themselves  and  their  posterity.  Now,  friends,  do 
you  wonder  that  it  makes  my  blood  boil,  to  hear  from  the  lips  of  mere  boys 
the  assertion  that  they  and  their  sex  alone,  have  the  right  to  make  and  exe- 
cute the  laws  that  I  and  my  daughters  are  to  live  under ;  that  they,  are  born 
to  rule,  and  we  born  to  obey  ? 

You  tell  me  that  I  must  submit  to  conditions  before  I  can  vote  ;  I,  who 
am  a  free-born  citizen  of  the  United  States,  while  you  admit  the  igno- 
rant foreigner,  if  a  man,  to  the  full  privileges  and  responsibilities  of 
citizenship.  I  defy  this  assumption  of  power  on  the  part  of  men  of  this 
country.  I  declare  to  you,  as  did  the  apostle  Paul:  "I  am  free-born." 
"  With  a  great  price  obtained  I  this  freedom,"  said  the  Roman  centurion  to 
this  old  patriot  apostle,  but  he  replied,  "  I  am  free-born."  Ah,  friends, 
there  is  music  in  these  words,  to  my  ear.  They  are  the  deep  vibrations  of 
a  soul  that  loves  its  country  as  itself,  and  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of 
women  to-day  ready  to  pledge  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred 
honor,  to  the  maintenance  of  their  rights  as  free-born  citizens  of  this  republic, 
and  who  will  never  willingly  consent  to  such  desecration  of  Constitutions, 
State  or  national,  as  would  be  caused  by  the  addition  of  special  articles  pro- 
viding for  the  right  of  women  to  vote.  Such  articles  would  virtually  read 
thus  :  "All  men  are  created  equal ;  all  women  are  also  created  equal,  not 
only  to  each  other,  but  to  men;  all  men  may  peaceably  assemble  and  petition 
for  redress  of  grievances,  may  keep  and  bear  arms,  may  be  secure  against 
unreasonable  searches  and  seizures,  may  retain  to  themselves  all  rights  not 
enumerated  in  the  Constitution,  and  all  women  may  assemble,"  etc.,  etc. 
As  well  may  theologians  interpret  "  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them,"  to  mean  literally  men,  and  therefore 
demand  a  new  scripture  specially  to  include  women  in  these  and  the  like 
injunctions,  "  He  that  believeth  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  believeth 
not  shall  be  condemned,"    "No  man  can  serve  two  masters,"  "A  good 


296  International  Council  of  Women. 

man  out  of  the  good  treasure  of  his  heart  bringeth  forth  good  things,"  etc. 
No,  friends,  the  truth  is  precedent,  and  prejudice,  custom,  and  conservatism 
are  the  only  barriers  against  women  in  government  to-day.  Constitutions 
are  all  right  when  properly  interpreted. 

The  one  article  of  the  national  Constitution  which,  it  is  claimed,  for- 
bids women  to  vote,  in  fact  guarantees  to  women  the  right  to  vote  for 
members  of  Congress,  rather  than  forbids  it,  and  not  only  so,  but  it  act- 
ually calls  upon  the  General  Government  to  interfere  with  the  State  gov- 
ernments, if  necessary,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  women  in  the  exercise 
of  this  right.  Article  I,  section  2,  says:  "The  House  of  Representatives 
shall  be  chosen  every  second  year  by  the  people  of  the  several  States,  and 
the  electors  of  each  State  shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite  for  electors 
of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  State  legislature."  Here  you  have  in 
full  the  only  paragraph  in  the  United  States  Constitution  that  can  be  tor- 
tured by  our  adversaries,  to  exclude  women  from  voting  for  United  States 
officers.  I  speak  advisedly  when  I  say  "adversaries,"  for,  friends,  it  is  no 
pleasant  task,  this  work  of  going  up  and  down  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land,  proclaiming  that  women  are  free,  and  ought  to  exercise  their  freedom 
under  a  sense  of  responsibility  by  the  conscientious  use  of  the  ballot,  the 
only  token  of  political  responsibility,  and  the  men  who  keep  up  these  laws 
of  precedent  and  shut  us  off  from  the  expression  of  our  will  in  matters  of 
government  are  the  worst  kind  of  adversaries.  They  compel  us  to  most  un- 
welcome duty,  and  to  penalties  of  whose  sting  they  have  but  little  concep- 
tion. Some  of  us  know  to-day  of  fire  and  fagot  in  our  hearts,  whose  burn- 
ing makes  deeper  scars  than  the  martyr  fires  of  old,  and  were  it  not  for  faith 
in  God,  we  should  have  given  up  the  contest  long  ago. 

Here,  then,  you  have,  I  say,  the  only  argument  against  the  right  of  women 
to  vote,  contained  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and,  briefly 
stated,  it  is  this :  The  latter  clause  says  that  electors  for  members  of  Con- 
gress must  have  the  same  qualifications  as  electors  for  members  of  the  State 
legislature,  and  the  constitution  of  Connecticut,  for  instance,  declares  in 
Article  VI,  section  2,  that  "  Every  white  male  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
who  shall  have  attained  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and  resided  in  this  State 
one  year  and  in  the  town  six  months,  and  shall  be  able  to  read  any  article  of 
the  Constitution,  shall,  on  his  taking  such  oath  as  may  be  prescribed  bylaw, 
be  an  elector  of  the  State."  Now,  say  objectors,  women  are  not  white  male 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  and,  as  these  are  the  only  ones  that  may  choose 
members  of  the  legislature,  these  are  the  only  ones  who  may  choose  mem- 
bers of  Congress.  To  which  I  reply,  first,  that,  by  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  word  white  was  expressly, 
and  the  word  male  virtually,  blotted  out  from  all  our  State  constitutions,  and 
in  Connecticut  black  men,  under  that  amendment,  were  allowed  to  vote  for 
years  before  the  word  "white"  was  expunged  from   its  constitution;  and, 


Political  Conditions.  297 

second,  that  the  first  clause  of  this  Article  II,  section  2,  which  says  that  the 
House  of  Representatives  shall  be  composed  of  members  chosen  by  the 
people,  denies  to  every  State  the  right  to  make  any  qualification  for  State 
electors  that  shall  interfere  with  the  predominating  right  of  the  whole  people 
to  elect  their  members  of  Congress. 

It  is  as  if  the  United  States  Constitution  had  said  :  "  The  right  of  trial 
by  jury  shall  be  secured  to  all  the  people  of  the  United  States  ;"  and  Con- 
necticut had  said  in  her  constitution  :  "  Every  white  male  citizen  shall  be 
entitled  to  a  trial  by  jury."  Plainly  such  an  article  of  a  State  constitution 
would  be  pronounced  null  and  void,  and  the  only  reason  the  other  has  not 
been  so  pronounced  long  ago,  is  that  in  the  beginning,  men  alone  thought  of 
voting,  wished  to  vote,  did  vote  ;  and  so  the  authors  of  the  State  constitu- 
tions, in  defining  who  should  be  electors,  naturally  and  as  a  matter  of  exact- 
ness, and  without  any  thought  of  women,  said  :  "  All  white  male  citizens  " 
with  such  and  such  qualifications  may  vote.  And  the  case  is  all  the  stronger 
for  women  than  for  black  men,  because  the  enslavement  and  disfranchise- 
ment of  black  men  was  contemplated,  reluctantly,  it  is  true,  but  nevertheless 
contemplated  and  recognized  by  the  national  Constitution,  while  the  dis- 
franchisement of  women  was  not  thought  of  or  considered.  This  is  so  true 
that  women  did  actually  vote  in  a  few  instances  in  the  earlier  days,  and  they 
only  ceased  to  do  so,  »beeause  they  did  not  appreciate  its  importance,  or,  as 
in  New  Jersey,  because  that  State,  in  direct  violation  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  as  I  think,  specially  disfranchised  the  women  of  the  State. 

And  to  those  who  may  not  be  ready  to  admit  that  the  national  Constitu- 
tion secures  to  women  the  right  to  vote  in  all  cases  equally  with  men,  there 
is  this  special  and  decisive  argument  with  regard  to  their  right  to  vote  for 
members  of  Congress.  The  Constitution,  as  we  have  seen,  gives  the  right 
to  the  people  of  the  State,  with  only  this  limitation — that  the  electors  for 
members  of  Congress  shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite  for  electors  for 
the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  State  legislature.  The  right  is  absolute, 
except  that  the  State  may  fix  the  "qualifications."  Now,  what  is  a  qualifi- 
cation ?  Sex  is  not  one.  A  qualification  is  something  that  may  be  acquired, 
as  a  certain  age,  a  certain  time  of  residence,  ability  to  read,  etc.  A  certain 
height  of  stature  could  not  be,  a  certain  color  of  the  eyes  could  not  be. 
Nothing  natural  and  unchangeable  could  be.  So  sex  can  not  be.  The  State, 
therefore,  in  making  sex  a  disqualification  has  attempted  that  which  it  had 
no  power  to  do,  and  its  action  is,  so  far,  void. 

If,  then,  as  is  claimed,  the  United  States  may  step  in  and  punish  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States  for  voting  illegally  for  members  of  Congress,  as  in  the 
case  of  Susan  B.  Anthony,  because  the  State  had  limited  the  voting  privilege 
to  male  citizens,  surely  the  United  States  may  much  more  be  called  upon  to 
step  in  and  protect  the  right  of  all  the  people  of  every  State,  to  become 
electors  of  members  of  Congress,  including  the  women  people  as  well  as  the 
20 


298  International  Council  of  Women. 

men  people.  Do  you  not  see  it,  friends?  Members  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives shall  be  chosen  by  the  "  people  of  the  several  States,"  and  yet 
when  one  of  these  people — being  an  honest,  law-abiding,  tax-paying  woman, 
after  consulting  the  best  lawyer  in  her  city,  and  being  duly  registered  and 
sworn  in  as  an  elector — puts  her  ballot  in  the  box  for  a  member  of  Congress, 
the  United  States  Government,  by  marshal  and  commissioner,  seizes  her, 
and,  by  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  condemns  her 
to  a  fine  and  costs  of  prosecution,  on  the  ground  that  the  State  of  New  York 
has  a  right  to  disfranchise  half  its  citizens,  they  being  guilty  only  of  being 
women,  and  in  the  face  of  the  express  provision  of  this  article  that  the 
people  of  every  State  shall  elect  the  members  of  Congress  of  that  State. 
And  I  may  as  well  finish  what  I  have  to  say  of  Miss  Anthony's  trial  just 
here,  because  Judge  Hunt's  decision  against  her,  was  based  partly  on  this 
very  article,  and  it  is  time  that  his  interpretation  of  it  and  the  consequences 
thereof  were  fully  made  known. 

Judge  Hunt  decided  that  the  right  of  voting  is  a  "  right  or  privilege  aris- 
ing under  the  constitution  of  the  State,  and  not  of  the  United  States,"  and 
this  in  the  face  of  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments,  ratified  by 
three-fourths  of  the  States,  and  thereby  made  as  much  the  law  of  the  land  as 
any  other  part  of  the  United  States  Constitution.  The  Fourteenth  reads: 
"All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States  and  subject  to  the 
jurisdiction  thereof  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein 
they  reside.  No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the 
privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States,  nor  shall  any  State 
deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law, 
nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the 
law."  This  amendment  was  supposed  to  cover  the  whole  ground  of  enfran- 
chising the  black  men,  made  free  by  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  and  it  ought 
to  have  been  sufficient.  But  the  white  men  of  the  South  were  naturally 
averse  to  seeing  black  men  just  out  of  slavery  the  chief  rulers  of  their  States, 
they  being  recently  disfranchised  themselves  for  rebellion,  and  they  made  it 
so  difficult  for  black  men  to  vote  that  the  Republican  party,  which  was  abso- 
lutely dependent  upon  their  votes  for  continuance  in  power,  determined  to 
strengthen  the  right  of  black  men  to  vote  by  another  amendment,  and 
so  passed  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  which  reads  :  "  The  right  of  citizens 
of  the  United  States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United 
States  or  by  any  State  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude.  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  act  by  appropriate 
legislation." 

Here  we  have  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  saying  in  plainest 
terms  "  that  all  persons  born  in  the  United  States  and  subject  to  the  jurisdic- 
tion thereof  are  citizens,  not  only  of  the  United  States,  but  of  the  State 
wherein  they  reside ;  and  that  the  right  of  citizens  to  vote  shall  not  be  de- 


Political  Conditions.  299 

nied  by  any  State;  and  yet  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  declares,  from  the  bench  that  the  citizen's  right  to  vote  comes  from  the 
State  alone,  and  hence  that  a  State  may  disfranchise  any  of  its  citizens  except 
black  men,  these  alone  being  protected  from  disfranchisement  by  the  latter 
clause  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  "  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude."  Thus,  you  perceive,  a  majority  of  present  voters  in 
any  State  may  disfranchise  every  other  voter  who  has  gray  hair  or  blue  eyes, 
or  any  physical  peculiarity  but  a  black  skin  ;  may  disfranchise  all  men  over 
forty  years  of  age,  or  all  men  worth  less  than  $50,000,  or  all  men  of  the 
temperance  party,  or  the  labor  party,  or  the  Republican  or  Democratic  par- 
ties; in  short,  every  one  but  themselves,  the  then  majority  of  voters;  and 
Judge  Hunt  accepted  this  conclusion  and  declared  that  this  is  the  constitu- 
tional law  of  the  United  States,  as  interpreted  by  him  in  his  capacity  of  judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

He  did  this  because  he  was  so  imbued  with  the  theory  of  State  rights  as 
against  national  rights,  and  so  filled  with  prejudice  against  the  rights  of 
women  in  government,  that  he  was  determined  to  interpret  these  amendments 
in  behalf  of  black  men  alone,  although  the  wording  of  them  leaves  no  room 
for  question  that  they  embrace  all  the  people  of  the  United  States,  accord- 
ing to  the  meaning  and  intent  of  that  word  "people,"  in  all  the  previous 
articles  of  the  national  Constitution. 

And  yet  this  is  but  half,  and  the  least  criminal  half,  of  his  unjust  decision 
in  the  case  of  Miss  Anthony.  Not  content  with  misinterpreting  the  law  of 
the  United  States  by  proclaiming,  that  the  right  to  vote  of  every  citizen  but 
black  citizens,  was  subject  to  loss  at  the  pleasure  of  a  bare  majority  of  voters, 
he  denied  to  her  the  right  of  trial  by  jury — that  is,  he  decided  the  case 
himself,  and  caused  the  clerk  of  the  court  to  record  the  verdict  of  guilty, 
without  reference  to  the  jury  empaneled  for  the  case,  who  had  been  sitting 
all  through  the  trial  to  hear  the  case,  and  who  alone  were  legally  competent 
to  bring  in  a  verdict  upon  it.  And  when  Miss  Anthony's  counsel  asked 
leave  to  address  the  jury  he  was  denied  ;  and  when  he  asked  that  the  jury 
be  polled — that  is,  that  each  member  might  be  asked  by  name  if  this  was  his 
verdict,  he  was  again  denied,  and  Judge  Hunt  then  instructed  the  clerk  to  take 
the  verdict,  and  the  clerk  said,  in  the  usual  form:  "Gentlemen  of  the  jury, 
hearken  to  the  verdict  as  the  court  hath  recorded  it.  You  say  you  find  the 
defendant  guilty  of  the  offense  charged.     So  say  you" all." 

No  response  was  made  by  the  jury,  either  by  word  or  sign.  They  had  not 
consulted  together  in  their  seats  or  otherwise.  None  of  them  had  spoken 
a  word.  Nor  had  they  been  asked  whether  they  had  or  had  not  agreed  upon 
a  verdict.  No  juror  spoke  a  word  during  the  trial  from  the  time  they  were 
impaneled  to  the  time  of  the  discharge,  and  as  soon  as  the  judge  refused 
to  poll  the  jury,  he  said:  "  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  you  are  discharged," 
and  the  jurors  left  the  box,  and  one  of  them  declared  to  a  bystander  that 


300  International  Council  of  Women. 

"guilty  "  was  not  his  verdict,  neither  was  it  the  verdict  of  the  other  eleven. 
■"  Could  I  have  spoken,"  said  he,  "  I  should  have  answered  '  not  guilty,' 
and  men  in  that  jury-box  would  have  sustained  me."  It  seems,  friends,  that 
he  and  the  other  jurors,  had  a  right  to  speak  and  to  demand  that  the  verdict 
be  submitted  to  the  jury.  But  they  did  not  understand  their  rights  in  this 
respect,  and  were  naturally  in  awe  of  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  judge  must  have  known  that  they  would  be  awed,  or 
he  would  not  have  dared  thus  to  transgress  the  ordinary  rules  of  law.  And 
for  this  act  he  deserved  impeachment,  and  had  the  accused  been  a  foreign- 
born,  though  naturalized,  citizen  of  the  United  States  on  trial  for  fraudulent 
voting,  which  is  a  criminal  offense,  you  know,  punishable  by  heavy  fine  and 
imprisonment,  and  had  he  been  thus  denied  a  verdict  from  the  jury,  the  press 
would  have  rung  out  the  injustice  all  over  the  land.  And  this  simply  because 
this  man,  being  an  acknowledged  voter,  would  have  had  a  political  party  be- 
hind him,  whose  interest  it  was  to  protect  him  and  every  other  citizen, 
whether  free-born  or  naturalized,  in  his  right  to  vote. 

Thus  you  see  how  in  this  right  to  vote,  is  wrapped  up  the  great  volume  of 
our  cherished  rights.  Judge  Hunt  began  with  denying  to  women  their  citi- 
zens' right  to  vote,  and,  by  an  easy  step,  passed  on  to  denying  that  right 
regarded  most  sacred  of  all — the  right  of  trial  by  jury.  And  the  crime  of 
Judge  Hunt  in  refusing  Miss  Anthony  her  right  of  trial  by  jury  was  all 
the  greater,  because  there  was  no  appeal  from  his  court  to  any  higher  one, 
as  is  customary  in  all  our  other  courts.  A  circuit  court  judge  may  review 
his  own  decision,  but  there  is  no  appeal  from  his  final  decision,  and  the 
judge  refused  even  to  reconsider  the  case,  though  strenuously  urged  to  do  so 
by  Judge  Selden,  the  counsel. 

And  now  permit  me  to  give  you  briefly  the  argument  of  woman's  right  to 
vote  in  our  State  elections  as  well  as  national,  in  consequence  of  the  passage 
of  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  simply  this :  Before  the  war,  and  reconstruction  acts 
following  it,  the  word  "citizen"  was  not  fully  defined,  some  jurists  con- 
tending that  all  persons  owing  allegiance  to  the  Government  and  protected 
by  it  were  properly  citizens  ;  and  others,  that  only  those  who  were  accred- 
ited legal  voters  could  properly  be  called  citizens.  Then,  when  the  Repub- 
lican party  desired  to  enfranchise  the  black  men,  partly  for  the  sake  of  secur- 
ing their  votes  (I  do  not  say  that  this  was  the  sole  motive)  in  the  next  Pres- 
idential election,  it  was  not  willing  to  deface  the  national  Constitution  by 
such  words  as  these  :  "All  black  men,  formerly  slaves,  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States  ;"  and,  "  No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall 
abridge  the  privileges  or  immunities  of  black  men  ;"  and  again,  "  The  right 
of  black  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote  shall  not  bedenied  or  abridged 
by  any  State,"  and,  therefore,  it  was  driven  to  the  annunciation  of  a  general 
principle  of  citizenship,  applicable  to  all  persons  at  all  times,  and  this  was 


Political  Conditions.  301 

the  principle,  that  "All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States, 
and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and 
of  the  State  wherein  they  reside."  This  is  a  grand  assertion,  in  harmony, 
as  I  have  already  shown,  with  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  whole  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and,  like  them, 
it  embraced  all  women  as  well  as  all  men,  and  secured  to  all  women  no  less 
than  all  men,  their  right  to  vote.  Mark  the  words  "secure"  and  "right  to 
vote."  Our  claim  is  that  the  original  Constitution  gave  no  right  to  vole  to 
any  man  or  woman,  but  it  simply  secured  to  every  man  and  woman  his  or 
her  original,  natural  right  to  govern  himself  or  herself,  except  so  far  as  he  or 
she  should  delegate  this  right  to  others,  for  purposes  of  civil  life  and  national 
action.  And  these  amendments,  following  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  in 
preamble  and  articles,  declare  that  all  persons  are  citizens,  and  that  the 
citizen's  right  to  vote  shall  not  be  abridged  by  any  State.  Can  anything  be 
plainer  than  that  woman,  being  a  "  person,"  is  a  citizen,  and,  being  a  cit- 
izen, has  the  citizen's  right  to  vote? 

Formerly  each  State  had  charge  of  its  own  elections  and  the  United 
States  had  no  right  to  interfere  with  them  in  any  State,  even  though  the 
election  was  for  national  officers,  but  in  the  eagerness  of  the  Republican 
party  to  enforce  the  amendments  which  would  bring  black  votes  to  their 
aid,  they  gave  a  new  power  to  Congress  in  this  section  :  "  Congress  shall 
have  the  power  to  enforce  this  article,"  viz.,  "  The  right  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States  to  vote  without  denial  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude."  And  Congress  passed  what  is  called  the  Enforce- 
ment Act  of  1870,  which  is  entitled  "  An  act  to  enforce  the  right  of  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States  to  vote  in  the  several  States  of  the  Union." 
General  terms,  again,  you  perceive  ;  not  an  act  to  enforce  the  right  of  the 
black  man  to  vote  in  the  several  States  of  the  Union,  but  Of  all  citizens  of 
the  United  States.  And  the  first  eighteen  clauses  of  the  act  are  very  minute 
in  their  provisions  for  the  protection  of  these  black  men,  whose  votes  were 
wanted  ;  and  then,  there  was  a  nineteenth  clause  that  was  intended  solely  to 
hinder  from  voting,  white  rebel  men  who  had  been  disfranchised  during  the 
war,  and  this  clause  reads  thus:  "If  at  any  election  for  representative  or 
delegate  in  Congress  of  the  United  States,  any  person  shall  vote  without 
having  a  lawful  right  to  vote,  every  such  person  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a 
crime,  and  shall  for  such  crime  be  liable  to  prosecution  in  any  court  of  the 
United  States  of  competent  jurisdiction,  and  on  conviction  thereof  shall  be 
punished  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  $500,  or  by  a  term  of  imprisonment  not 
exceeding  three  years,  or  both,  in  the  discretion  of  the  court,  and  shall  pay 
the  costs  of  prosecution." 

And  under  this  clause  of  the  Enforcement  Act  of  1870,  which  was  made 
expressly  to  punish  white  male  rebel  citizens  for  voting,  after  they  had  been 
disfranchised  for  rebellion,  Judge  Hunt  condemned  Susan  B.  Anthony  for 


302  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  crime  of  voting  "  without  having  a  lawful  right  to  vote."  This  woman, 
the  blackest  of  black  Republicans,  who  had,  with  others  like  herself,  fur- 
nished Mr.  Sumner  with  half  his  ammunition,  in  the  shape  of  petitions  from 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  citizens  in  behalf  of  the  black  man — names 
which  it  is  an  enormous  task  to  collect,  but  without  which  all  appeals  to 
Congress  to  do  justice  would  have  been  in  vain — this  woman,  who  had  vio- 
lated the  infamous  fugitive  slave  law  every  time,  by  giving  the  cup  of  cold 
water  to  the  panting  fugitive  and  speeding  him  on  his  way  to  free  soil  in 
Canada — she,  thank  God!  of  all  women  in  this  land,  was  selected  by  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  to  be  prosecuted,  dragged  from  one  court  to 
another,  harassed  during  the  space  of  nearly  a  year,  tried  at  last  in  another  city 
than  her  own  and  fined  for  the  crime  of  voting  for  the  President  of  the  United 
States  and  a  member  of  Congress,  under  an  act  entitled  "An  act  to  enforce 
the  right  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote  in  the  several  States  of  this 
Union,"  and  under  a  clause  of  that  act  that  made  it  a  crime  for  a  rebel  to 
vote,  because  he  had  been  deprived  of  his  citizen's  right  to  vote,  by  special 
act  of  Congress,  in  consequence  of  his  crime  of  rebellion. 

And,  friends,  do  you  not  know  that  no  citizen  can  be  lawfully  disfran- 
chised, either  by  State  or  nation,  except  for  crime  or  rebellion,  and  then  only 
by  the  judgment  of  his  peers  ?  But  in  this  case  of  Miss  Anthony,  she  was 
punished,  not  only  as  if  she  had  been  guilty  of  crime  or  rebellion,  or  both, 
but  she  was,  so  far  as  the  unjust  judgment  of  the  court  could  doit,  disfranchised 
for  evermore,  and  that  without  the  judgment  of  her  peers  in  a  double  sense — 
for  she  was  not  only  denied  the  verdict  of  the  male  jury  sitting  there  on 
purpose  to  render  their  verdict,  but  a  jury  of  her  peers  she  could  not  have, 
nor  can  any  woman,  so  long  as  women  are  denied  the  right  to  vote  and  to  sit 
upon  a  jury.  And  in  the  case  of  Miss  Anthony's  jury,  had  they  been 
allowed  to  render  a  verdict,  it  would  have  been  a  verdict  not  of  her  peers, 
but  of  her  political  superiors,  and  this  would  have  been  true  of  them,  how- 
ever ignorant  or  uneducated  they  were;  whether  black  men  or  white,  drunk 
or  sober,  every  man  of  them  was  her  sovereign,  with  power  not  only  to  make 
but  to  administer  the  laws  under  which  she  is  compelled  to  live. 

Do  you  ask,  why  recount  this  trial  and  so  asperse  the  character  of  a  learned 
and  otherwise  upright  judge?  I  answer,  because  his  decision  has  become  a 
precedent,  and  on  this  account  we  have  been  compelled  to  relinquish  'tem- 
porarily, at  least,  our  high  vantage-ground  of  constitutional  guarantees,  and 
resort  to  the  advocacy  of  an  amendment  to  the  national  and  State  constitu- 
tions, measures  alike  dishonoring  to  the  constitutions  and  to  the  womanhood 
of  the  country. 

We  believe,  with  a  distinguished  Senator  from  my  own  State,  whom  I  have 
been  proud  to  claim  as  a  personal  friend  for  many  years,  that  "  Our  Govern- 
ment involves  a  great  deal  of  labor  for  us.  -Liberty  is  a  burden,  not  a 
release,'  a  French  philosopher  has  said.     If  you  want  ease,  appoint  as  good  a 


Political  Conditions.  303 

king  as  you  can  find,  give  him  good  counsellors,  and  tell  them  to  save  you 
all  trouble ;  you  will  have  ease ;  but  if  you  desire  real  freedom,  it  means 
labor.  The  twelve  million  sovereigns  of  this  country  are  bound  each  to 
know  something  of  the  responsibility  that  is  constantly  taught  in  caucus, 
town-meetings,  etc.  The  caucus  should  be  only  a  meeting  of  honest  citizens 
to  see  what  had  best  to  be  done."  And  as  there  are  thousands  of  women 
quite  ready  to  assume  this  responsibility,  of  seeing  what  had  best  be  done  in 
the  primary  meetings  of  all  the  cities  and  villages  of  our  land,  and  thousands 
more  who  will  do  it  conscientiously,  though  reluctantly,  when  called  to  it  by 
the  invitation  of  their  fathers,  brothers,  husbands,  and  sons,  we  desire,  most 
earnestly,  that  the  approaching  second  century  of  male  legislation,  should  wit- 
ness a  reversal  of  this  unjust  decision  of  Judge  Hunt,  and  proclaim  the  free- 
dom and  responsibility  of  all  the  citizens  of  these  United  States.  Let  our 
brothers,  then,  consecrate  this  opening  century  of  constitutional  government, 
by  an  act  of  justice  that  shall  be  a  supreme  one,  and  that  shall  make  our 
national  Constitution  forever  a  charter  of  the  highest  human  rights. 

I  said  in  the  beginning  that  women  ought  to  exercise  their  constitutional 
right  to  vote,  and  men  ought  to  help  them  to  do  so  by  every  means  in  their 
power.  And  this  for  two  reasons  :  (i.)  Because  questions  of  legislation  are 
largely  questions  of  morals,  and  men  alone  are  incompetent  to  deal  with  the 
morals  of  a  community,  however  wise  they  may  be,  and  however  honest  in 
their  desire  to  promote  the  general  welfare.  Education,  secular  and  religious, 
temperance,  chastity,  police  regulations,  penal  institutions  and  reformatories 
— who  has  more  interest  than  women  in  all  these  questions,  and  more  wisdom 
to  bring  to  their  solution?  (z.)  There  can  be  no  true  manhood  nor  true 
womanhood  when  men  rule  and  women  merely  obey.  Every  mother  in  her 
home,  every  teacher  in  our  public  schools  is  at  a  discount  to-day,  because  of 
her  political  subordination.  Every  boy  knows  this,  and,  consciously  or  un- 
consciously, acts  accordingly. 

True  political  economy,  which  is  only  another  name  for  the  science  of 
government,  can  never  be  taught  until  women  are  intelligent  and  responsible 
thinkers  upon  the  subject,  equally  with  men,  and  are  able  to  carry  out  their 
convictions  at  the  ballot-box.  Hence,  I  repeat,  it  is  the  plain  duty  of  every 
woman  to  desire  to  vote,  and  of  every  man  to  remove  the  obstacles  in  her  way. 

I  will  only  answer  one  objection.  It  is  said,  "  We  have  too  many  voters 
already.  It  is  unjust,  to  be  sure,  to  exclude  all  women  on  this  account,  but 
we  can  not  help  it.  Men  will  not  consent  to  be  disfranchised,  so  we  must 
make  amends  for  our  mistake  in  inviting  all  men  to  vote,  by  forbidding  all 
women."  This  is  too  much  like  Charles  Lamb,  who,  being  reproved  for  going 
so  late  to  his  desk  in  the  morning,  said  he  made  it  up  by  going  home  early  in 
the  afternoon.  But  have  we  too  many  voters?  In  other  words,  is  the  doc- 
trine of  the  fathers  of  this  republic  an  unsound  one,  that  personal  liberty 
and  personal  responsibility  are  the  only  foundations  of  integrity,  whether  in 


304  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  individual  or  the  nation  ?  No,  it  is  not  unsound.  It  is  just  as  true  to-day 
as  it  was  at  Sinai  and  Plymouth  Rock. 

"  Thou  shalt "  and  "we  will  "  reads  the  Decalogue  and  the  covenant  of  that 
old-time  Jewish  people,  and  thus  in  spirit,  speak  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence  :  it  is  a  grand  and  wholesome 
doctrine,  and  one  we  can  not  afford  to  lose  sight  of  for  a  moment.  But  those 
do  lose  sight  of  it,  who  say  we  have  too  many  voters  already.  No,  we  have 
not  too  many.  On  the  contrary,  to  take  away  this  ballot,  even  from  the  ig- 
norant and  perverse,  is  to  invite  discontent,  social  disturbances,  and  crime. 
The  restraints  and  benedictions  of  this  little  white  symbol  are  so  silent,  yet 
so  genial,  so  atmospheric,  so  like  the  snowflakes  that  come  down  to  guard  the 
slumbering  forces  of  the  earth  and  prepare  them  for  springing  into  bud,  blos- 
som, and  fruit  in  due  season,  that  few  recognize  the  divine  alchemy,  and  many 
impatient  souls  are  saying  we  are  on  the  wrong  path — the  Old  World  was 
right — the  government  of  the  few  is  safe ;  the  wise,  the  rich,  should  rule ; 
the  ignorant,  the  poor,  should  serve.  But  God,  sitting  between  the  eterni- 
ties, has  said  otherwise,  and  we  of  this  land  are  foreordained  to  prove 
his  word  just  and  true.  And  we  will  prove  it,  by  inviting  every  new- 
comer to  share  our  liberties  so  dearly  bought,  and  our  responsibilities  now 
grown  so  heavy  that  the  shoulders  which  bear  them  are  staggering  under 
their  weight ;  that  by  the  joys  of  freedom  and  the  burdens  of  responsibility 
they,  with  us,  may  grow  into  the  stature  of  perfect  men,  and  our  country 
realize  at  last  the  dreams  of  the  great  souls  who,  "  appealing  to  the  Supreme 
Judge  of  the  world  for  the  rectitude  of  their  intentions,"  did  "  ordain  and 
establish  the  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America" — the  grandest 
charter  of  human  rights  that  the  world  has  yet  conceived. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  am  happy  to  present  to  you  Mrs.  Judith  Ellen  Foster, 
of  the  law  firm  of  "Foster  and  Foster,"  Clinton,  Iowa,  who  is  not  only 
an  equal  member  of  the  firm,  but  also  a  very  successful  lawyer,  I  am  glad  to 
say. 

WOMEN    IN    POLITICS. 

Mrs.  Foster.  Woman  is  in  politics,  and  the  only  unanswered  question 
is,  What  relation  shall  she  hold  to  politics  and  what  will  be  the  result  of  that 
relation  with  all  it  involves  ?  Shall  women  appear  in  political  life  by  mere 
accident  of  birth,  as  does  Victoria,  Queen  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  and 
Empress  of  India;  or  by  marriage,  as  Victoria,  Empress  of  Germany;  or  by 
royal  favor  and  caprice,  as  did  the  "  ladies  of  the  court  "  in  the  days  of  im- 
perial France  ?  Shall  women  labor  to  sustain  the  government,  as"  do  the  Prim- 
rose Dames,  and  for  governmental  reform,  as  do  the  Women's  Liberal  Asso- 
ciations of  England,  through  organizations  which  do  every  sort  of  honest 
political  work  except  to  vote?  Shall  they  hold  the  position  of  supplicants, 
as  American  women  do  who  seek  governmental  protection  for  temperance, 
for  education,  for  philanthropy,  for  industrial  equality?     Shall  women  seek 


Political  Conditions.  305 

to  conserve  every  purpose  of  good  government,  by  every  means  in  their 
power,  and  still  lack  the  one  means  of  crystallizing  their  love  into  law, 
their  labor  into  government  ?  Or  shall  all  political  disabilities  be  removed 
from  all  women  who  possess  constitutional  qualifications  to  which  all  citizens 
may  attain?  Accepting  the  Declaration  of  Independence  as  containing  the 
essential  equities  of  civil  government,  and  the  Golden  Rule  as  the  standard  of 
individual  obligation,  the  logical  conclusion  is  irresistible,  that  all  political 
disabilities  imposed  upon  women  by  constitutional  and  statutory  law  are  in 
violation  of  nineteenth-century  civilization.     *     *     * 

In  social,  educational,  and  industrial  emancipation,  woman's  present 
achievements  have  realized  the  largest  expectations  of  enthusiasts.  Her 
political  enfranchisements  shall  bring  like  realizations.  Mr.  Parnell,  that 
great  Irish  patriot,  said,  a  few  days  ago,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that 
England's  attempted  justice  to  Ireland  in  the  settlement  of  the  land  question 
had  always  been  too  late.  Men  of  America,  we  see  the  revolutions  going  on 
about  us — revolutions  social,  industrial,  political.  The  practical  abnegation 
of  self-government,  and  the  duties  of  citizenship  by  the  so-called  better 
classes,  the  aggressiveness  of  capital,  the  distractions  of  labor,  and  the  saloon 
in  politics — these  known  and  unknown  forces  are  bringing  a  crisis  in  our 
national  life,  full  of  terrible  peril  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race;  aye,  to  every  race 
everywhere.  We  do  not  threaten  revolution  because  we  bear  about  with  us 
this  sense  of  injustice  to  ourselves  and  danger  to  the  State.  We  have  no 
separate  interests  which  can  be  taken  out  of  and  guarded  apart  from  the 
country  and  the  age  we  live  in.  Humanity  is  a  unit  in  origin  and  destiny  ; 
our  national  life  is  a  body  of  many  members,  and  is  affected  by  the  health 
of  every  part. 

Gentlemen,  we  do  not  threaten.  We  have  no  interest  that  can  be  taken 
out  of  the  body  politic  and  cared  for  by  itself.  We  must  share  with  you 
the  evils  of  bad  government  as  well  as  the  blessings  of  good  government. 
Somebody  writing  in  a  New  York  paper,  of  a  magnificent  address  which 
had  been  presented  in  this  city  by  that  peerless  orator,  Frances  E.  Willard. 
said  that  she,  in  pleading  for  woman's  ballot,  seemed  to  forget  that  women 
must  fight  if  they  would  vote.  I  wondered  from  whence  that  man  came.  I 
wondered  if  he  thought  his  objection  was  an  original  one.  I  wondered  what 
was  the  name  he  bore.  For  I  remember — we  all  have  remembered — during 
these  last  few  weeks  how  our  civilization  differs  from  that  of  all  the  world. 
As  we  have  waited — as  we  did  wait — in  the  sick  chamber  of  the  great 
Emperor  William,  as  we  watched  by  his  bedside,  as  we  watched  by  his  bier  with 
the  multitudes,  as  we  thought  of  the  life  of  the  great  man  extending  through 
the  century  from  the  days  of  Napoleon,  when  he  was  consecrated  to  his  life  by 
his  mother,  the  great  Queen  Louise,  consecrated  out  of  the  agony  of  her 
soul,  because  Napoleon  had  so  ruthlessly  trampled  on  her  kingdom,  we 
see    that    the   distinguishing    feature   of  his  reign  was   the   dominance   of 


306  International  Council  of  Women. 

military  power.  It  was  force,  force,  force.  He  held  in  his  mighty  grip  a 
people  who  were  subjects,  not  citizens.  And  we  know  that  to-night,  in  Eu- 
rope, there  are  four  millions  of  armed  men  who  walk  back  and  forth  and 
who  do  military  service;  and  we  know  that  what  they  call  a  strong  govern- 
ment, depends  upon  force  of  arms.  And  when  we  tell  them  about  our 
system,  as  I  did  last  summer,  and  explained  to  them  that  we  had  less 
than  25,000  men  in  our  standing  army;  when  I  spoke  of  our  great  ter- 
ritory, of  our  Atlantic  coast,  of  our  Pacific  coast,  where  the  waters  come 
in  over  the  golden  sand,  they  said  :  "  But  what  would  you  do  if  anything 
should  happen?"  I  said:  "I  am  sure  I  don't  know  what  we  would 
do;  only  I  am  sure  nothing  will  happen."  Why,  our  weakness  is  our 
strength.  But  why;  why  are  we  safe?  It  is  because  of  the  dominance 
of  moral  power  in  this  land  of  ours.  It  is  because  we  everywhere  have 
a  standing  army  which  would  come  to  the  rescue  if  any  assault  were 
made.  We  know  the  history  of  the  wars  of  the  past;  we  know  the  help  that 
came  from  the  forge,  the  farm,  the  plow,  and  the  school-room;  yes,  and 
from  the  sacred  desk,  and  we  know  it  would  come  again,  if  need  be;  but  it 
shall  never  need  be.  Why  ?  Because  we  have  set  up  moral  power  here  as 
against  mere  military  power,  and  so  I  say  to  you  to-night,  dear  friends,  that 
the  lady  who  presides  over  this  meeting,  who  has  for  so  many  years  stood  at 
the  head  of  this  great  movement,  so  I  say  to  you  that  the  lady  who  presides  over 
the  great  temperance  movement  of  this  country,  I  say  that  these  two  women 
are  a  moral  power  in  this  nation,  and  are  mightier  than  they  would  be  if  they 
led  armies.     Why?     Because  it  is  moral  power  that  counts.     *     *     * 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Mrs.  Harriet  H. 
Robinson,  of  Massachusetts,  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
National  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 

POLITICAL   PARTIES    AND    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

Mrs.  Robinson.  In  discussing  the  question  of  political  conditions  I  always 
feel,  so  far  as  women  are  concerned,  that  we  have  no  story  to  tell,  so  little 
have  we  gained  after  these  forty  years  of  struggle.  I  do  not  wish  to  ignore 
the  small  rights  which  are  allowed  to  women  in  some  of  the  States  and  Ter- 
ritories, but  I  propose  to  discuss  the  question  in  a  broader  sense  and  speak 
of  woman's  status  in  the  parties  which  represent  the  leading  thought  in 
American  politics.  We  see  before  us  to-day  the  two  dominant  parties  pre- 
paring for  the  coming  political  campaign,  and  we  hear  a  great  deal  about  the 
"sovereignty  of  the  people,"  the  "rights  of  the  people,"  and  that  the 
"American  people  will  not  tolerate  class  domination."  We  read  all  this 
and  it  sounds  well.  We  agree  with  it.  But  when  we,  the  women,  stop  to 
think  whose  "rights"  are  discussed;  who  the  people  are  whose  "  sover- 
eignty must  be  maintained  ;"  who  "  will  not  tolerate  class  domination  ;"  we 
say:  "  This  does  not  mean  us  ;  for,  though  we  are  of  the  people,  we  have 
no  sovereign  rights  ;  we  are  women,  therefore  we  must  tolerate  class  domi- 
nation." 


Political  Conditions.  307 

These  political  parties,  when  they  meet  in  convention,  pass  high-sounding 
resolutions  on  all  sorts  of  questions — tariff  reform,  the  fisheries,  an  honest 
and  just  ballot,  etc.,  but  not  one  word  to  establish  or  even  suggest  that  the 
political  rights  of  one-half  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered. "  We,  the  people,"  these  men  call  themselves,  just  as  if  there  was 
not  a  woman  in  the  land  interested  in  what  they  say  or  understood  what 
they  were  doing.  But  they  go  on  ignoring  us  in  their  conventions  and  in 
their  resolutions,  just  as  much  as  they  did  before  we  had  begun  to  vote  at 
all,  or  were  declared  by  the  Supreme  Court  to  be  citizens. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  Republican  party  was  called,  and  was,  the 
party  of  freedom  ;  but  since  it  no  longer  gives  substantial  aid  to  the  leading 
reforms  of  the  day  it  deserves  that  title  no  longer ;  for  a  party,  no  more 
than  a  person,  can  live  on  what  it  has  done,  but  must  depend  on  what  it  is 
doing.  It  had  the  chance  to  keep  its  record  bright  in  1872,  when  it  advo- 
cated woman  suffrage  ;  but  it  failed  to  seize  it,  went  back  on  its  principles, 
and  thus  its  record  as  the  party  of  reform,  ended.  It  had  done  a  great  and 
noble  work  for  human  freedom,  and  here  was  another  opportunity  given  it 
to  continue  its  work.  The  woman-suffrage  cause  was  waiting  to  be  recog- 
nized, prepared,  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  to  follow  in  logical 
sequence  directly  upon  the  emancipation  of  the  black  man. 

Charles  Sumner,  in  a  letter  to  W.  S.  Robinson,  "  Warrington,"  the  well- 
known  "Our  Correspondent  "  of  the  Springfield  Republican  (never  before 
published),  gives  his  idea  of  the  duty  of  Republicans  in  securing  the  rights 
of  all  classes  of  citizens.     He  writes  : 

"27th  April,  '71. 
"  My  Dear  Robinson:  Long  before  the  war  I  insisted  that  our  Constitution  should 
be  interpreted  always  for  freedom,  whereas  it  was  interpreted  always  for  slavery. 
Such  interpretation  would  be  according  to  reason,  just  rules,  and  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  And  when  slavery  disappeared  I  insisted  that  the  great  impediment 
was  removed,  and  that  the  new  life  was  to  begin.  *  *  *  I  was  for  the  centrali- 
zation of  liberty,  the  upholding  of  human  rights.  Logically  and  constitutionally  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  nation  should  be  able  to  protect  and  secure  these  everywhere 
with  uniform  power,  so  that  they  shall  be  the  same  everywhere.  This  is  my  doc- 
trine. I  mean  to  die  by  it.  This  interpretation  is  the  great  victory  after  the  war. 
(Signed)  "  Charles  Sumner." 

If  the  Republican  party,  after  1872,  had  continued  to  advocate  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  women  of  the  country,  the  equal  rights  of  all  American  citi- 
zens— white  women  as  well  as  black  men,  black  women  as  well  as  black 
men — this  would  have  been  its  "  victory  after  the  war."  If  it  had  followed 
the  teachings  of  its  lost  leader,  this  would  have  made  it  something  more  than 
the  "  G.  O.  P."  It  would  be  the  ever  new,  the  ever-living  party  of  liberty. 
But  it  is  as  much  behind  the  times  on  questions  of  reform,  woman's  suf- 
frage, labor,  prohibition,  and  tariff,  as  was  the  Democratic  party  of  forty 
years  ago  on  the  anti-slavery  question.     It  is  hide-bound  and  can  not  move 


308  International  Council  of  Women. 

beyond  a  certain  point,  and  is  no  longer  strong  enough  to  take  on  a  new 
issue,  or  carry  a  reform  principle.     *     *     * 

The  Jeffersonian  Democrats  were  a  reform  party,  but  the  present  Demo- 
cratic party  has  made  no  record  for  itself  since  the  war,  nor  for  some  time 
before. 

What  claim  has  the  Prohibition  party  to  the  support  of  the  suffragists? 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  women  have  helped  this  party,  almost  as  much  as 
they  have  the  Republican  party.  In  the  years  when  there  was  no  doubt  as  to 
the  election  of  the  Republican  candidates,  the  prohibitory  vote  has  been  quite 
respectable.  That  is,  those  men  vote  for  their  own  candidates  when  it  is  of 
no  use;  but  when  the  time  comes  that  they  could,  by  voting  their  own  ticket, 
show  the  great  parties  that  they  are  a  power  to  be  both  feared  and  respected, 
they  make  a  stampede  for  the  Republican  camp.     *     *     * 

The  temperance  women  are  learning  that  they  can  not  trust  a  party  that 
does  not  vote  at  all  times  for  its  own  candidates,  and  are  learning,  that  they 
must  demand  the  ballot  for  themselves  in  order  to  secure  legislation  for  the 
temperance  cause ;  that  they  need  the  full  right  of  suffrage  so  that  they  can 
carry  constitutional  prohibition  without  the  help  of  men,  who  can  be  fright- 
tened  or  persuaded  into  abandoning  their  own  cause.  Women  will  always 
have  "leave  to  withdraw  "  as  long  as  they  trust  to  men  to  do  their  voting 
for  them. 

And  there  is  no  more  hope  for  women  in  the  Henry  George,  or  Labor 
parties  ;  so  soon  as  the  test  elections  come,  their  constituents  as  inevitably 
rush  back  to  their  old  Democratic  camp. 

In  speaking  of  the  two  dominant  parties,  I  do  not  forget  that  there  are 
individual  members  who  believe  in  and  work  for  the  political  emancipation 
of  women,  but  they  can  not  go  outside  of  party  lines.  They  are  Repub- 
licans, Democrats — first,  last,  and  always — and  what  there  is  left,  after  doing 
their  duty  as  party  men,  they  give  to  the  suffrage  cause.  They  try  to  help 
us,  I  know,  and  they  make  every  effort  to  get  resolutions  into  party  plat- 
forms, but  as  yet  they  have  no  power  to  change  the  policy  or  make  our 
reform  an  issue  within  party  lines.  The  fact  is,  the  woman's  cause  is  always 
in  the  way  of  politicians.  They  seem  to  be  afraid  of  it ;  afraid  to  meet 
such  a  great  moral  issue  as  they  know  it  to  be.  It  seems  to  them  a  sort  of 
unknown  quantity — a  bete  noir — or,  like  Tennyson's  "little  speck  in  garnered 
fruit,"  to  be  quietly  removed  before  my  lord  eats  his  apple.  And  these 
politicians  act  as  if  they  did  not  know  which  way  to  turn  when  the  woman 
question  is  brought  to  their  notice.  They  suggest  every  remedy  but  the 
right  one.  They  shrink  at  the  idea  of  giving  to  the  women  of  the 
country  the  same  rights  which  they  themselves  enjoy.  It  is  claimed  that 
they  hesitate,  because  they  will  not  know  what  to  do  with  us,  or  how 
to  manage  such  a  large  "element"  (as  they  call  us)  entering  into  politics 
all  at  once.     But  do  not  fear,  gentlemen  !     We  do  not  want  you  to  do  any- 


Political  Conditions.  309 

thing  with  us,  nor  yet  try  to  manage  us.     Make  us  free — that  is  all  we  ask — 
and  we  will  take  care  of  ourselves  !     *     *     * 

Since  such  is  the  attitude  of  political  parties,  what  should  be  the  position 
of  women  themselves  in  regard  to  them?  Shall  they  be  Republican,  Demo- 
crat, Prohibitionist,  Labor  Party?  For  my  own  part,  I  say  belong  to 
none  of  them,  for,  until  such  time  as  I  have  the  right  to  vote  there  is  no 
legitimate  place  for  me  in  any  party.     *     *     * 

Old  conditions  of  society  are  passing  away.  Nations  have  been  scat- 
tered, but  God  has  gathered  their  fragments  together,  and  here  on  Amer- 
ican soil  is  to  be  tried  the  experiment  of  self-government  by  and  for  the 
people.  And  whether  it  succeeds  sooner  or  later,  depends  on  the  leaders, 
who  hold  in  their  hands  the  power  to  guide  the  people  aright.     *     *     * 

Miss  Anthony.  Mrs.  Martha  A.  Everett,  of  Massachusetts,  delegate  of 
the  School  Suffrage  Association,  will  now  speak  to  us. 

SCHOOL  SUFFRAGE  IN   MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mrs.  Everett.  I  have  felt  ever  since  these  meetings  began  as  if  it  was  a 
large  Thanksgiving  party,  a  real  old-fashioned  New  England  Thanksgiving, 
when  all  the  children  and  grandchildren  had  been  invited  home  and  were 
having  a  glorious  feast  and  good  time  with  their  parents,  grandparents, 
uncles,  aunts,  and  cousins,  and  were  telling  what  each  had  been  doing  in 
their  days  of  separation. 

Since  1874  no  person  in  Massachusetts  has  been  deemed  ineligible,  by  rea- 
son of  sex,  to  serve  upon  a  school  committee.  The  legislature  of  1879,  passed 
an  act  relative  to  the  right  of  women  to  vote  for  school  committee.  In  order 
to  exercise  the  right  of  voting,  a  woman  must  have  paid  a  tax  in  the  com- 
monwealth within  two  years,  must  have  resided  within  the  State  one  year, 
and  in  the  city  or  town  in  which  she  proposes  to  vote,  six  months.  The  tax 
may  have  been  paid  by  herself  on  demand  of  the  assessors,  or  may  have  been 
paid  by  a  parent,  guardian,  or  trustee  on  her  account.  A  woman  who  holds 
her  receipted  tax-bill  must  go  with  it  to  the  registrar,  who,  after  ascertaining 
that  she  has  the  proper  qualifications  of  age,  residence,  and  education,  must 
put  her  name  on  the  list  of  qualified  voters.  Being  once  registered,  she  is 
not  obliged  to  register  again  as  long  as  these  conditions  remain  unchanged. 
If  a  woman  has  not  already  paid  a  tax,  she  must  take  measures  to  do  so  if 
she  wishes  to  vote.  For  this  purpose,  she  must  apply  in  writing  to  the 
assessors  of  her  city  or  town,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  October,  express- 
ing her  wish  to  be  assessed  for  her  poll,  and  give  a  list  of  her  estate — real  and 
personal — which  is  not  exempt  from  taxation.  She  will  then  be  assessed  for 
her  poll,  not  exceeding  fifty  cents,  and  for  her  estate  she  must  then  pay  her 
tax  and  register  as  other  women  do  who  have  paid  taxes.  Women  who  have 
thus  paid  taxes  and  registered  have  a  right  to  vote  for  members  of  the  school 
committee  in  Massachusetts.  This  does  not  give  us  the  whole  loaf,  but  as 
our  brothers  only  offer  a  slice,  we  accept  rather  than  to  go  without  a  crumb. 


310  International  Council  of  Women. 

At  a  meeting  of  registered  women  held  in  the  city  of  Boston  in  1880,  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed,  with  Miss  Abby  W.  May  as  president,  to  take  charge 
of  school  suffrage  throughout  the  State.  The  plan  of  work  adopted  was  to 
appoint  for  each  county  in  the  State  one  or  more  resident  managers,  who 
shall  stimulate  and  urge  the  women  to  take  an  active  and  intelligent 
interest  in  the  schools  and  use  their  right  of  suffrage  to  secure  good  boards 
of  government  for  them.  The  result  would  be  that  the  associate  man- 
agers will  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  condition  of  school  affairs 
in  every  town  and  village  in  the  State.  They  will  keep  the  central  com- 
mittee in  Boston  fully  informed  of  affairs  in  their  respective  counties. 
This  work  has  been  undertaken  with  zeal,  and  the  best  spirit  in  many  places. 
The  interest  manifested  by  women  in  nominations  for  .members  of  school 
boards,  has  often  been  the  means  of  defeating  men  unfit  for  the  place.  The 
foundation  principle  of  the  work  is  "the  best  interests  of  the  schools." 
The  responsibility  of  the  ballot  has  offered  a  great  incentive  to  women  to 
gain  the  intelligence  needed  to  make  their  interest  wise  as  well  as  earnest,  in 
making  our  public  schools  worthy  to  receive  and  educate  children  from  the 
best  homes.  What  can  we  do  by  our  votes  for  the  good  of  the  schools  ? 
This  question  may  be  asked  by  some  who  are  either  indifferent  to  the  subject 
or  who  may  wish  to  know  their  duty  in  the  matter.  If  the  schools  in  a  town 
or  city  are  below  the  average,  they  are  so  either  because  the  committee  are 
not  equal  to  the  work  of  making  them  good,  or  because  public  sentiment  will 
not  sustain  the  committee  in  their  efforts  for  improvement. 

But  in  either  case  women  help  make  public  sentiment,  and  are  responsi- 
ble for  whatever  may  be  wrong  in  it,  if  they  do  not  use  their  influence  to 
make  it  what  it  should  be.  If  the  school  committees  are  competent,  women 
should  show  that  they  recognize  and  appreciate  the  efforts  to  improve  the 
schools,  by  increasing  the  majority  at  an  election,  by  the  votes  of  all  the 
earnest  women  in  the  State.  Teachers  are  entitled  to  a  recognition  by  all 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town.  Oftentimes  they  are  young,  with  good  ability 
and  fair  training,  but  lacking  experience,  which  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
in  their  work.  Women  have  it  in  their  power  to  be  of  great  strength  and 
support  to  teachers  of  this  class. 

It  may  be  a  criticism,  a  suggestion,  a  word  of  encouragement  that  will 
lighten  the  burden  that  weighs  heavily  upon  every  one  who  elevates  the 
profession  of  teaching  to  where  it  belongs.  The  women  of  every  city 
and  town  should  see  to  it,  that  one  woman  or  more  is  chosen  on  the 
school  committee.  There  are  now  in  Massachusetts  more  than  one  hundred 
women  serving  upon  school  boards.  Our  worthy  Secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education,  Mrs.  Dickenson,  says  that,  "  while  men  are  chosen 
for  many  reasons,  women  are  chosen  for  solid  merit,  for  the  high 
order  of  service  they  render."  They  observe  the  habits  and  condition  of 
the  children,  and  are  skilled  to  invent  ways  of  improvement.     They  notice 


Political  Conditions.  311 

the  relations  existing  between  teachers  and  pupils,  and  encourage  the  use  of 
the  highest  principles  in  school  government.  They  are  ever  watchful  over 
the  health  and  comfort  of  the  teacher  and  school-children  committed  to 
their  care.  This  is  especially  true  of  their  forethought  for  the  teachers  and 
pupils  in  the  primary  grades,  where  the  nervous  strain  on  the  teachers  is 
most  intense.  There  are  some  women  in  every  town  who  have  the  educa- 
tion, experience,  and  leisure  that  render  them  peculiarly  fitted  to  occupy  an 
important  place  in  directing  the  work  in  the  public  schools. 

A  large  number  of  the  public-school  teachers  are  women,  and  a  share  of  the 
supervision  of  the  schools  should  be  placed  under  their  direction.  The 
safety  of  the  nation  depends  largely  upon  the  management  of  our  public 
schools.  As  William  von  Humboldt  stated  the  case,  "  Whatever  we  wish  to 
see  introduced  into  the  life  of  a  nation,  must  first  be  introduced  into  its 
schools."  The  school  is  a  child  of  the  State,  the  State  declaring  its  love  by 
teaching  the  children  how  to  make  the  most  of  themselves  and  the  world 
around  them. 

It  has  been  said  there  are  four  things  which  the  State  should  see  that 
its  children  have  an  opportunity  to  learn,  viz.,  to  think,  to  work,  to  behave, 
and  to  love  their  country.  These  four  are  the  corner-stones  of  the  founda- 
tion of  our  homes  and  the  Union.  Can  women,  can  the  mothers  of  this 
nation,  after  building  upon  this  foundation  until  our  children  are  placed  in 
the  public  schools,  can  we  sit  quietly  by  and  say  we  have  no  part  in  this 
great  school  life?  Shall  we  trust  the  formation  of  our  child's  character  to 
others  and  not  give  our  own  influence  to  brighten  and  refine  it?  Shall  we, 
by  our  indifference  to  duty,  contribute  to  the  triumph  of  evil  over  good? 
Nay,  rather  let  us  go  back  to  our  homes  with  a  renewed  determination  to  take 
part  in  this  great  struggle  for  the  welfare  of  our  schools,  our  homes,  and  the 
nation  we  love  so  well,  and  never  falter  until  the  women  of  every  State  in 
the  Union  are  represented  upon  the  school  boards. 

Miss  Anthony.     I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Rev.  Annie  Shaw. 

Miss  Shaw.  You  have  all  heard  what  school  suffrage  is  in  the  State  of 
Massachusetts,  and  it  isn't  much  of  anything,  for  we  have  not  school  suffrage  ; 
we  haven't  anything  but  school  committee  suffrage,  and  that  is  a  good  way 
from  school  suffrage. 

When  the  law  was  passed  giving  us  school  committee  suffrage  I  felt  as  old 
and  as  large  as  my  brother  did  when  he  was  twenty-one  ;  and  so  I  im- 
mediately started  with  some  of  the  ladies  of  my  church  to  register.  We 
went  out  into  the  field  to  find  a  person  to  register  our  names,  we  hunted  him 
up  and  brought  him  in  from  the  hayfield,  and  then  we  all  stood  along  in  a 
row,  like  a  lot  of  schcol-girls,  waiting  to  take  our  oaths.  The  way  they  do 
this  in  Massachusetts,  they  make  us  women  swear  to  our  property  in  order  to 
tax  us.  That  isn't  the  way  they  do  with  men  ;  they  tax  them  first  and  then 
send  in  their  bill  and  let  them  do  the  swearing  afterwards.     I  had  never  been 


312  International  Council  of  Women. 

taxed  before  for  three  reasons  :  being  a  Methodist  preacher,  nobody  supposed 
I  had  anything  to  tax,  and  nobody  asked  ire;  and  then  again,  having  paid 
the  tax  on  the  property  I  did  own  in  the  place  where  it  was,  we  in  Massa- 
chusetts, by  a  double  system,  have  to  pay  it  over  again,  and  I  wouldn't  pay 
it  anyhow  ;  and  then  again,  I  don't  believe  in  taxation  without  representa- 
tion, that  is  tyranny,  and  I  never  pay  a  cent  of  taxes  unless  I  am  obliged  to. 
Upon  going  there  we  women  stood  up  in  a  little  row,  and  took  our  little 
oath  in  regard  to  property.  My  property  yields  me  $105  a  year.  Out  of 
this  enormous  income  I  paid  $22.50  tax!  leaving  me  a  large  amount  of 
money  to  live  on  the  rest  of  the  year,  you  see.  On  the  morning  of  the  elec- 
tion I  did  not  know,  as  we  lived  in  the  country,  when  we  were  to  vote  for 
school  suffrage;  so  we  went  early.  The  way  they  do  there,  they  stand  in  a 
sort  of  line  or  procession,  you  know,  as  they  do  in  our  country  places,  and 
vote  first  for  one  thing  and  then  another  ;  so  we  stood  there  until  our  time 
came.  At  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  got  our  places;  and  presently 
the  men  who  were  there  began  burning  incense  on  the  altar  of  liberty,  and 
the  smoke  began  rising  until  by  and  by,  along  toward  noon,  we  could 
scarcely  see  across  the  house.  We  live  in  a  seafaring  place,  where  they 
smoke  red  herring,  and  every  one  of  us  went  through  the  process  and  know 
how  red  herring  feel  when  they  are  smoked  through.  At  three  o'clock  our 
time  to  vote  for  school  committee  came,  and  now,  we  thought  to  ourselves, 
is  our  opportunity.  Just  as  the  time  was  announced  the  moderator  said, 
with  great  dignity  :  "I  appoint  three  men  to  nominate  a  gentleman  for  school 
committee."  And  they  walked  out  and  returned  with  the  name  of  the 
only  man  in  town  whom  they  could  persuade  to  take  the  office.  There  was 
no  pay  to  the  office,  and  in  order  to  get  a  man  to  take  it  they  had  to  talk 
to  him  of  George  Washington  and  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  the  Fourth  of 
July,  and  wave  the  flag  there  in  his  face  for  an  hour.  So  they  nominated 
the  only  man  they  could  persuade,  and  the  moderator  said  :  "I  appoint 
Captain  Crowell  to  cast  the  ballot  for  the  town."  But  I  said,  "Gentle- 
men, I  thought  I  was  to  vote;  "  but  they  said,  "This  is  the  way  we 
always  do  it."  I  said,  "Yes,  I  know,  but  I  have  paid  $22.50  tax;  I 
have  been  smoked  done,  and  I  want  to  be  allowed  to  vote;  may  I  not  be 
allowed  to  cast  my  vote  ?  "  He  said,  "  Ladies,  we  have  no  time  to  spare." 
I  said,  "  Gentlemen,  I  think  I  ought  to  vote,  and  I  want  to  vote."  "  Very 
well,"  said  he,  "  if  you  must  vote,  vote  for  the  town."  But  I  said,  "  I  can't 
do  that,  gentlemen,  because  there  are  five  other  ladies  here,  who  all  want  to 
vote."  And  as  I  was  talking,  an  old  man,  with  a  pipe  in  his  mouth,  snarled 
out,  "  That's  just  the  way  ;  just  the  way  I  knew  it  would  be,  just  the  way." 
The  moderator  quieted  them  down  after  a  little,  and  I  said,  "  Gentlemen,  I 
insist  upon  voting;  I  came  here  to  vote  ;  "  and  then  I  nominated  one  of  the 
ladies  who  was  with  me  as  my  candidate  for  school  committee,  and  then 
immediately  we  began  to  buttonhole  and  every  one  began  to  vote,  and  every- 


Political  Conditions.  313 

body  began  to  dive  to  get  a  chance  to  vote  for  school  committee ;  and  it 
took  us  just  three  hours  to  vote.  And  then  the  old  gentleman  who  was  so 
angry  that  the  institutions  of  the  fathers  had  been  overturned  immediately 
mounted  a  chair,  and,  doubling  up  his  fist,  exclaimed,  "If  this  is  woman's 
suffrage,  I  am  agin  it  every  time.  Here  we  have  spent  three  hours  on  the 
school-house,  when  we  needed  it  all  on  the  herring  brook." 

So  that  is  my  voting ;  that  is  the  opportunity  which  we  say  we  women 
are  not  equal  to  grasp  !  When  the  question  of  appropriations  for  schools 
came  up,  there  was  a  certain  class  of  men  who  wanted  to  cut  them  down, 
and  I  was  asked  to  speak  a  word  against  it,  and  1  said  I  would  do  it  gladly; 
but  the  moderator  said  :  "  The  lady  can  not  speak  upon  that  subject."  And 
I  said:  "  Why  not ;  I  am  entitled  to  vote  on  this  subject?  "  And  he  said  : 
"  No ;  you  don't  vote  on  questions  pertaining  to  schools ;  it  is  only  a  ques- 
tion pertaining  to  school  committees" — and  that  is  school  suffrage !  And 
men  who  never  paid  a  dollar  of  tax,  and  men  who  never  paid  a  dollar  for 
the  town,  voted  to  cut  down  that  appropriation,  but  to  increase  the  fund  to 
support  the  poor  outside  of  the  poor-house,  knowing  very  well  that  the  women 
who  paid  the  taxes  would  raise  that  fund.  I  said  to  the  gentlemen  :  "  Can't 
you  stop  this?"  and  they  said:  "  No,  ladies;  we  can't  stop  this."  I  looked 
up  to  see  who  it  was,  and  I  saw  he  was  running  for  representative,  and  I 
knew  he  couldn't  stop  it,  because  there  were  nine  or  ten  vot  :s  involved 
there.  Finally  I  said  :  "  Gentlemen,  I  can  stop  my  part  of  it,  because  I  will 
not  pay  another  cent  of  tax  in  Massachusetts  while  I  live."  He  said:  "You 
can't  help  it ;  that  is  what  school  suffrage  does  for  women  in  Massachusetts. 
They  register  and  swear  to  their  property,  and  we  know  what  they  have  and 
we  tax  them  after."  Said  I :  "  Gentlemen,  you  will  never  tax  me  again  in 
Massachusetts."  They  laughed  at  me  and  said  I  could  not  help  it ;  but  I 
could.  I  happened  to  be  my  own  master,  so  the  next  day  I  put  my  prop- 
erty in  such  a  shape  that  it  has  never  been  taxed  in  Massachusetts  since,  and 
it  never  will  be  taxed  there  if  I  live  there  until  the  angel  Gabriel  blows  the 
last  trumpet.  It  costs  me  more  not  to  pay  the  tax  than  it  would  to  pay  it, 
and  my  friends  say:  "You  are  squandering  your  money."  I  know  I  am 
squandering  my  money,  but  if  I  have  any  money  to  squander  I  want  to  do 
it.     That  is  my  experience  on  school  suffrage  in  Massachusetts. 

Now,  do  you  wonder  that  every  woman  in  the  State  is  not  anxious  to  be 
taxed  and  get  nothing  but  the  privilege  to  vote  on  such  an  unimportant  mat- 
ter as  this,  knowing  full  well  that  if  she  does  vote  it  will  amount  to  nothing 
at  all  ? 

Miss  Anthony.  Mrs.  Anna  Randall  Diehl,  of  New  York,  will  read  a 
poem  entitled  "  The  Flag  at  Half-Mast,"  written  by  Mrs.  Helen  Cook. 

Mrs.  Diehl.  Just  a  year  ago  Miss  Wolfe,  one  of  the  greatest  philanthro- 
pists in  this  country,  was  about  to  be  buried.  I  went  to  the  mayor  of  the 
city  of  New  York  and  respectfully  asked  him,  if  he  would  allow  the  flag  to 
21 


314  International  Council  of  Women. 

float  at  half-mast  on  the  City  Hall  on  the  day  of  her  burial.  He  said  it 
could  not  be  done.  I  said  :  "  Did  not  the  flags  hang  at  half-mast  when 
Peter  Cooper  lay  dead?  "  "  Oh  yes,"  said  the  mayor,  "but  Peter  Cooper 
had  been  an  alderman."  Then  s-aid  I :  "  The  flags  floated  at  half-mast  for 
Peter  Cooper  the  alderman,  and  not  for  Peter  Cooper  the  great  philanthro- 
pist." He  admitted  this  to  be  so.  Then,  said  I:  "If  Jaehne  and  the 
other  boodle  aldermen  who  are  now  at  Sing  Sing  were  to  die,  trie  flags  on 
the  City  Hall  would  have  to  float  at  half-mast  for  them?"  And  Mr. 
Hewitt  laughingly  said  that  he  supposed  the  friends  would  have  a  right  to  ask 
it. 

This  poem  was  written  by  Mrs.  Cook  while  the  flags  were  floating  at  half- 
mast  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Peter  Cooper. 

THE  FLAG  AT  HALF-MAST. 

I  sat  and  watched  the  flags  to-day, 

Some  fluttering  near,  some  far  away ; 

I  saw  them  shrink  and  cling,  as  if 

They  could  not  float  for  weight  of  grief ; 

And  then  the  soothing  April  wind 

Just  kissed  their  hems  with  touch  so  kind, 

They  floated  out,  and  I  could  see 

They  were  all  hung  half-mast !    "Ah,  me ! 

Some  man  is  gone  !    Never,"  I  said, 

"  Were  flags  half-mast  for  woman  dead." 

And  why,  oh,  world,  I  ask  you  why 
That  flag  up  there  in  the  blue  sky 
That  floats  half-mast  for  men  who  have 
Perchance  no  laurels  for  their  grave ; 
The  flag  for  which  my  grandsires  died, 
Which  was  my  honored  mother's  pride, 
That  gives  its  pledge  of  grief  to-day, 
Should  not  when  I  shall  pass  away— 
My  work  all  done,  ray  prayers  all  said, 
Why  not  half-mast  when  I  am  dead  ? 

As  soon  as  life's  affections  move, 
Oh,  does  not  woman  learn  to  love 
Each  fold  and  stripe  and  every  star 
That  symbols  liberty,  not  war? 
That  flag  for  which  the  sons  she  gave 
Have  marched  unflinching  to  the  grave, 
That  hung  half-mast  when  life  had  fled, 
Yet  ne'er  would  droop  o'er  her  when  dead. 

If  I  fought  battles  all  my  life 
With  sin  and  wrong  and  human  strife, 
And  gained  my  victories  great  and  grand 
As  any  soldier  in  the  land, 
Or  taught  the  lowly  how  to  live, 
Gave  to  the  poor  all  I  could  give, 
Gave  to  life's  wounded  ones  the  wine 
From  the  great  healing  Fount  Divine  ; 
And  turned  the  evil  into  good, 
Blessing  the  world's  sad  brotherhood 
With  deeds  of  hand  or  heart  or  pen ; 
Of  suffering,  dying,  even  like  men, 
No  starry  flag  would  float  o'erhead 
Half-mast  that  I  was^ying  dead ! 


Political  Conditions.  315 

And  yet  I  love  that  flag  so  well ; 

I  love  to  watch  it  rise  and  swell, 

Like  a  proud  bird,  whose  tireless  wings 

Could  soar  through  cloudland,  as  he  sings 

The  song  of  Freedom  with  his  might, 

The  Sons?  of  Justice,  Truth  and  Right. 

I  watch  its  graceful  rise  and  fall 

In  the  soft  air,  and  think  of  all 

The  women  who  have  won  a  name 

Immortal  in  the  world  of  fame, 

That  brightens  history's  treasured  page  ; 

The  true  of  earth,  the  pure,  the  sage, 

The  gentle  ones,  the  singers  sweet, 

The  martyrs  with  their  bleeding  feet ; 

Yet,  had  I  yielded  all  I  prized, 

And  even  life  had  sacrificed, 

And  my  poor  name  had  led  them  all, 

No  flag  half-mast  would  rise  and  fall 

In  the  free  heavens  overhead, 

That  I  was  hushed  and  still  and  dead. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  should  have  announced  at  the  beginning  that  the  reason 
the  programme  is  not  fully  carried  out  this  evening,  is  that  Mrs.  Neymann  is 
not  able  to  leave  her  room  at  the  Riggs  House.  I  hope  she  will  be  with  us 
to-morrow  evening. 

Next  I  shall  introduce  to  you  Mrs.  Laura  M.  Johns,  president  of  the 
State  Association  of  Kansas,  who  will  tell  you  about  municipal  suffrage  there. 
She  has  had  the  honor  of  casting  a  ballot  at  least  once. 

Mrs.  Johns.  Fellow-citizens  :  I  say  fellow-citizens,  because  I  have  arrived 
at  the  dignity  of  citizenship — that  is,  I  am  a  fractional  citizen — that  is,  I 
am  partiallv  enfranchised,  as  I  have  a  municipal  vote.  I  am  asked  to  tell 
you  something  about  municipal  suffrage  in  Kansas,  and  I  want  to  tell  you 
that  Kansas  is  the  first  State  in  the  Union  to  confer  this  honor  upon  women. 

If  I  were  not  so  very  much  afraid  of  this  great  audience  before  me  and 
this  other  great  audience  at  my  back,  I  should  tell  you  a  great  deal  about  it. 
I  should  like  very  much,  indeed,  to  tell  you  how  at  that  first  election  in. 
which  women  participated  the  well-worn,  old  fogy  objections  about  woman 
suffrage  died  and  were  buried  and  no  psalm  tunes  were  sung  at  the  funeraL 
You  see  the  people,  even  in  Kansas,  had  talked  about  women  as  if  they  were 
full  of  frozen  wickedness,  and  as  if,  when  they  got  near  enough  to  the  ballot- 
box  to  cast  a  ballot,  it  would  be  like  Baron  Munchausen's  trumpeter,  whose 
trumpet  was  full  of  wicked  tunes,  and  the  weather  was  so  cold  that  they 
froze  up;  but  when  it  got  warm  the  contents  of  the  trumpet  melted  and  all 
those  wicked  tunes"  came  out ;  so  they  all  talked  as  if  they  thought  all  women 
were  full  of  frozen  wickedness,  and  that  the  frozen  wickedness  would  melt 
and  come  out  of  the  ballot-box. 

The  old  institutions  were  not  overturned,  society  was  not  revolutionized ; 
the  dinners  were  cooked,  buttons  sewed  on,  babies'  faces  washed  just  the 
same  as  before,  and  the  regular  spring  house-cleaning  came  on  with  the  same 
cast-iron  regularity  and  the  same  flavor  of  soapsuds  and  general  air  of  deso- 


316  International  Council  of  Women. 

lation  ;  and  we  bought  our  spring  bonnets  right  after  the  election,  and  we 
kept  on  buying  pretty  dresses  with  just  as  much  money  as  we  could  get,  and, 
indeed,  I  think  our  husbands  had  hoped  it  would  make  some  difference  in 
these  things,  especially  when  the  bills  came  in.  Those  objections,  you  see, 
have  vanished.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  them  and  are  very  tired 
of  them.  Some  of  us  voted  with  our  husbands,  and  some  of  us  voted  against 
our  husbands ;  but  the  majority  of  us — and  I  have  been  up  and  down  and 
about  iu  our  State  a  great  deal,  and  I  think  I  know — I  verily  believe  the 
majority  of  us  voted  just  as  we  pleased — just  as  nearly  in  accordance  with 
our  own  convictions,  just  as  little  influenced  by  our  husbands  and  fathers  and 
brothers  as  men  are  by  their  brothers  and  fathers.  And  I  know  of  only  one  case 
of  domestic  jar  that  occurred.  I  know  of  only  one  man  who  whipped  his  wife, 
and  that  man  was  in  the  habit  of  whipping  his  wife,  anyhow.  I  noticed  that 
where  difficulties  occurred  in  families,  it  was  always  where  difficulties  were 
in  the  habit  of  occurring.  It  has  always  been  said  that  we  would  meet 
such  dreadful  things  at  the  polls.  We  were  very  much  astonished  to  find 
exactly  the  same  men  there  that  we  met  in  the  streets,  in  the  post-offices, 
in  the  opera  house,  and  whom  we  do  business  with,  and  they  behaved  just 
about  the  same  on  that  day  as  they  usually  do.  They  doffed  their  hats  and 
smiled  and  bowed,  and  we  smiled  and  bowed  back  to  them.  We  thought 
they  were  rather  pleased  to  see  us,  and  we  were  rather  pleased  to  see  them, 
and  those  elections  were  the  most  orderly  ever  held  in  Kansas. 
y^Now,  as  to  the  result  of  that  election.  Better  men  were  elected  to  our 
municipal  offices.  We  didn't  accomplish  quite  all  we  undertook  to  ;  we 
didn't  always  elect  our  candidate;  our  choice  didn't  always  turn  out  to  be 
a  wise  one;  but  the  determination  to  have  purer  city  government  did  result  in 
better  and  safer  government.  And  during  this  last  year  a  fiercer  war  has  been 
waged  against  the  vices  which  are  sapping  the  life-blood  of  our  nation.  And 
we  don't  lose  a  single  bit  of  the  chivalrous  attention  of  the  men,  either. 
They  pick  up  our  handkerchiefs  just  as  they  did  before  ;  they  carry  our  para- 
sols just  as  they  did  before  ;  in  fact,  it  is  my  honest  conviction  that  we  have 
greater  respect  from  men  than  we  had  previous  to  our  enfranchisement, 
because  we  are  now  not  only  women,  but  we  are  citizens  besides. 

As  to  the  effect  of  this  experiment  upon  the  enforcement  of  our  prohib- 
itory law,  I  have  this  to  say  :  that  the  officers  elected  by  women's  votes  were 
in  nearly  every  instance  in  sympathy  with  the  law,  and  did  carefully  aid  in  its 
enforcement  ;  even  when  an  anti-prohibition  man  was  elected,  the  pressure 
which  we  were  able  to  bring  to  bear  upon  him  by  reason  of  our  ballots, 
resulted  in  compelling  him  to  perform  his  duty.  But  when  we  didn't  suc- 
ceed in  electing  our  choice  we  didn't  sit  down  in  our  easy-chairs  and  say, 
Peace !  Peace  !  No.  In  the  language  of  my  friend,  Miss  Shaw  (classical 
language),  we  "tagged  them  up,"  we  followed  them  with  petitions;  and 
our  protests  and  our  petitions  were  not  flung  under  the  table  and  out  of  the 


Political  Conditions.  317 

window,  as  formerly.  We  felt  that  our  influence  was  greater  than  it  ever  had 
been  before.  Attorney-General  Bradford  said  to  me,  that  in  those  large 
cities,  in  which  women  took  the  least  active  interest  in  the  election,  there  the 
prohibitory  law  was  openly  defied,  and  his  work  was  harder;  but  in  those 
large  cities  where  women  took  an  active  part  in  the  municipal  election,  the 
prohibitory  law  was  enforced,  as  well  as  other  laws  for  decency,  sobriety,  and 
good  order. 

And  we  have  not  repented  that  we  voted.  We  are  not  only  unrepentant, 
but  proud  that  we  voted,  and  proud  of  the  consequences — that  everything 
good  and  nothing  evil  has  resulted  from  it.  We  have  spent  a  little  time  since 
that  in  circulating  a  petition  for  full  suffrage,  just  a  little  time,  and  I 
brought  here  thousands  of  names  to  that  petition  for  full  suffrage  for  women, 
and  since  I  have  been  here  I  have  received  more  petitions  with  more  thousands 
of  names  on  them. 

Our  second  election  occurs  next  week.  I  shall  miss  my  vote,  for  which  I 
am  very  sorry,  but  in  first  and  second-class  cities  it  is  an  off-year  election, 
in  which  the  men's  vote  is  always  smaller,  and  I  presume  it  is  to  be  expected 
that  the  women's  vote  will  be  smaller.  I  left  the  State  quite  a  little  time 
before  the  closing  of  the  registration  books,  and  from  what  I  could  learn  then 
the  women  in  those  cities  where  unimportant  elections  were  to  take  place, 
were  registering  in  quite  as  large  numbers  as  they  did  last  year. 

In  the  third-class  cities,  where  the  election  is  important,  the  women's 
vote  will  be  very  much  larger,  because  women  are  better  prepared  to  vote. 
During  this  year  they  have  bought  books  and  studied  political  economy. 
They  have  studied  elective  methods  and  local  governments,  and  municipal 
governmental  machinery,  and  they  are  very  much  more  intelligent  on  the 
matter  than  they  were  last  year.  I  wager  that  the  constitution  of  Kansas 
has  been  better  read  this  year  by  the  women  than  in  all  the  previous  history 
of  the  State.  I  was  anxious  to  tell  you  about  this,  because  when  the  returns 
come  in  from  our  next  election  you  will  be  comparing  them  with  the  num- 
ber of  women  who  voted  last  year,  and  if  the  number  falls  below  26,000  I 
want  you  to  remember  that  it  is  not  because  women  have  lost  any  interest, not 
because  they  are  repentant,  but  simply  because  the  election  is  an  unimpor- 
tant one. 

I  believe  the  men  in  my  State  would  vote  for  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment giving  women  full  suffrage;  but  we  have  a  few  men — a  few — who  are 
opposed  to  it.  Our  senior  Senator,  perhaps  you  will  remember,  says  that 
the  franchise  should  be  extended  no  further,  because  we  have  reached  the 
danger-line  now,  and  especially  it  should  not  be  extended  to  women, 
because  women's  virtues  would  do  much  more  harm  than  their  vices.  We 
would  like  to  know  which  of  our  virtues  it  is  that  would  do  harm,  whether  it 
be  sobriety,  or  morality,  or  economy,  or  our  love  of  decency  and  good 
order  ?     And  then,  he  says,  if  women  are  enfranchised  it  would  add  very 


318  International  Council  of  Women. 

greatly   to  the   mass   of  illiterate   voters,  which  is  very  large   now.     Our 
women  of  Kansas  will  not  readily  forgive  our  representative  all  this. 

In  the  gloomy  south  transept  of  the  Cathedral  of  Milan,  there  stands  a 
marvel  of  the  sculptor's  art.  It  is  a  marvelous  exhibit  of  great  knowledge  of 
human  anatomy.  It  is  a  statue  of  St.  Bartholomew.  St.  Bartholomew,  you 
will  remember,  was  flayed  alive.  The  artist  has  represented  him  with  his 
skin  hanging  loose  over  his  arm,  and  the  inscription  says:  "  Not  Praxiteles,  but 
Lyssipus  made  me."  So  the  Senator,  for  whose  ability  I  have  profound 
respect,  whose  power  of  invective  is  unparalleled,  whenever  he  draws  his 
sword  (except  upon  woman  suffrage)  and  whose  blows  we  must  continue 
to  return,  not  exactly  according  to  Scripture  injunction  ;  I  say  when  our 
Senator  stands  in  a  state  of  innocuous  desuetude,  in  the  shades  of  political 
retirement,  with  his  epidermis  stretched  upon  the  barbed-wire  fence  of  polit- 
ical opinion  in  his  State,  the  verdict  of  the  world  will  be,  "  The  women  did 
it."  Now,  as  I  have  left  two  minutes  of  my  time,  it  is  but  fair  that  I  should 
be  allowed  to  introduce  an  ex-Kansas  sister,  whose  work  and  enthusiasm 
have  been  a  great  help  in  our  movement — Mrs.  Ellen  S.  Marble,  of  Minne- 
apolis. 

Mrs.  Marble.  I  owe  you  an  apology  for  taking  one  moment  of  Mrs. 
Johns'  time.  But  she  is  like  her  State,  and  always  has  enough  time  to 
spare.  And  so  I  am  glad  to  speak  here  to-night  because  I  cast  my  first  ballot 
in  the  State  of  Kansas,  and  at  their  polls  I  fought  my  first  political  fight. 
And  I  am  glad  to  say  we  beat  the  opponents,  who  were  fighting  for  whisky 
and  intemperance,  while  we  were  working  for  education  and  temperance. 
To-night  I  bring  as  a  sort  of  all-round  representative  of  a  good  many 
societies  in  Minneapolis,  the  greeting  to  the  sisters  who  have  spoken  on 
the  various  subjects  which  our  societies  represent.  As  State  President  of 
the  Minnesota  Association  for  Suffrage,  and  as  President  of  the  Minneapolis 
Suffrage  Society,  I  bring  my  greetings  to  these  noble  mothers  and  sisters  of 
suffrage  here.  As  Vice-President  of  the  Central  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  and  Superintendent  of  their  work  in  the  State  Reform  School, 
where  two  hundred  boys  and  twenty-five  girls  are  confined,  I  bring  the  greet- 
ings of  thirteen  well-organized  and  actively-working  unions  of  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  to  our  grand  sisters  of  the  White  Ribbon.  As 
Secretary  of  our  White  Cross  Society,  I  bring  their  greetings  to  our  lovers  of 
social  purity.  As  Secretary  of  our  beautiful  Maternity  Hospital,  I  bring  their 
greetings  to  the  philanthropists,  and  as  a  church  member  and  a  teacher  in  the 
Sabbath-school  I  bring  the  greetings  of  our  wide-awake  Christian  city  to  this 
wide-awake  Council. 

I  am  asked  why  I  am  a  suffragist.  It  is  because  I  have  a  pure  young 
daughter,  fourteen  years  of  age,  who,  under  our  laws  made  by  men,  may  sell 
herself  at  ten,  twelve,  fourteen,  or  sixteen,  but  may  not  give  herself  in  honor- 
able marriage  until  she  is  eighteen.     She  may  sell  herself  and  I  am  powerless. 


Political  Conditions.  319 

It  is  because  I  have  a  pure  young  son  of  sixteen,  whom  I  have  taught  that 
what  is  impure  for  his  sister  is  impure  for  him  ;  that  which  she  must  avoid, 
he  must  avoid ;  that  if  she  may  not  go  upon  the  street  at  night,  or  into  the 
saloons  by  day,  he  ought  not  to;  and  it  is  because  I  want  to  save  her  and 
want  to  save  him,  that  I  am  here  to  attend  this  grand  Council.  I  am  for 
suffrage  now  and  forever,  because  I  want  better  things  for  my  son  and  better 
things  for  my  daughter  than  their  father  and  mother  have  ever  had. 

Miss  Anthony.     Now  we  will  close  with  Miss  Willard. 

Miss  Willard.  I  don't  know*  as  it  will  make  me  stand  any  better  with 
the  ladies  of  the  audience,  and  certainly  it  won't  with  the  gentlemen,  I  sup- 
pose, but,  honestly,  I  always  thought  that,  next  to  a  wish  I  had  to  be  a  saint 
some  day,  I  really  would  like  to  be  a  politician. 

I  always  found  a  fascination  in  politics,  and  I  always  reached  out  with  a 
perfectly  democratic  grip  to  get  hold  of  a  newspaper,  and  most  of  all  liked 
to  turn  to  the  editorials  and  see  about  the  Whigs  and  Democrats,  because 
they  were  the  ones  when  I  was  little ;  and  father  was  a  Democrat,  and  I 
think  I  got  this  from  him.  I  think  I  am  his  true  daughter  in  respect  to  this 
desire.  Some  one  has  said  history  is  only  past  politics,  and  politics  is  pres- 
ent history.  Philanthropy  and  politics,  flowing  now  so  wide  apart,  will  flow 
in  a  single  stream  as  soon  as  philanthropists  learn  they  can  deal  with  the 
sources  as  well  as  the  results  of  crime,  and  as  so  in  as  the  politicians  discover 
that  their  functions  are  assigned  for  none  but  philanthropic  reasons.  In  the 
test  analysis  the  generalization  of  all  that  is  good  and  true,  will  appear  upon 
the  statute-books,  and  every  good  and  perfect  gift  to  humanity  will,  in  a 
republic,  enter  into  the  realm  of  law  through  the  portals  of  politics. 

Now,  I  was  a  farmer's  daughter,  and  got  this  idea  of  politics  through 
father's  and  mother's  talks  together,  as  much  as  from  the  newspapers.  I  re- 
member so  well  sitting  by  and  listening  to  their  talk,  and  mother  was  a  very 
motherly  woman,  and  a  tremendously  potential  politician,  though  I  don't 
think  she  ever  knew  it,  and  I  only  discovered  it  within  the  last  fourteen 
years.  I  never  knew  quite  what  was  the  matter  with  her,  but  she  was  born 
to  be  a  senator,  and  never  got  there.  *  *  *  Then  my  brother  came  to 
be  twenty-one,  and  we  had  gone  around  the  pastures  and  prairies  together  ; 
we  had  kept  along  in  our  ideas  and  ambitions  ;  we  had  studied  the  same 
books  and  had  the  same  general  purposes.  But  lo  and  behold !  there  came 
a  day  when  there  was  a  separation.  All  of  a  sudden,  just  about  that  time,  I 
noticed  by  the  family  Bible  record  that  he  was  twenty-one;  it  seemed  to  be 
an  arbitrary  kind  of  figure,  but  he  dashed  off  and  got  into  the  lumber  wagon 
with  father,  and  the  two  of  them,  dressed  in  their  best  Sunday-go-to-meet- 
ings,  because  we  thought  election  day  was  a  kind  of  Sabbath,  went  off  together 
and  voted  for  John  C.  Fremont. 

I  stood  at  the  window  and  watched  them  go  off,  simply  and  humbly,  girl  fash- 
ion, very  innocent  of  the  world,  and  not  a  bit  strong-minded;  yet  there  came  a 


320  International  Council  of  Women. 

lump  in  my  throat  and  I  couldn't  say  a  word.  Finally  I  got  voice  to  say,"  Don't 
you  think  we  ought  to  go  with  them,  Mary?  Don't  you  think  it  would  be  a  good 
thing  for  the  country  ?"  I  had  nothing  I  paid  taxes  on,  so  I  didn't  think 
about  it  being  a  good  thing  for  my  property ;  but  it  was  just  this  great  idea 
of  what  mother  had  taught,  that  the  country  was  a  kind  of  universal  mother 
to  us,  and  that  we  ought  to  be  loyal  and  faithful  and  true  to  it.  And  the 
dear  little  girl  standing  beside  me  said  :  "Of  course  we  ought  to  go  with 
them;  don't  I  know  that?  Haven't  I  got  sense  enough  for  that?  But  you 
mustn't  tell  about  it,  because  they  would  say  we  were  Shriekers."  And  so  we 
didn't  say  it,  and  didn't  talk  about  it  at  all ;  but  we  kept  up  that  tremendous 
thinking,  just  like  the  woman  of  old  is  said  to  have  kept  these  things  and  pon- 
dered them  in  her  heart.  And  these  things  came  into  my  mind  and  kept 
growing  on,  growing  out,  and  coming  up  into  this  age,  this  wonderful  tran- 
sition age,  which  goes  from  one  regime  into  another ;  this  blessed,  kindly, 
tolerant  age,  which  makes  all  so  pleased  with  such  a  meeting  as  this,  and 
makes  you  so  willing  for  it  to  go  right  on.  This  is  the  age  which  shows  me 
how  much  there  might  be  for  women  in  politics.  I  said  to  myself:  "  Here, 
politics  are  sacred  ;  there  isn't  anything  about  it  that  a  pure  heart,  serving 
its  kind,  wouldn't  like  to  have  to  do.  Now  can't  we  get  politics  out  of  the 
company  of  thieves  into  which  they  have  fallen  ?  Can  not  we  get  it  out  from 
among  the  beasts  of  Ephesus?  It  is  a  kind  of  poor  man  that  went  down  to 
Jericho.  Are  we  going  to  pass  by  on  the  other  side  or  are  we  going  to  come, 
like  the  good  Samaritan,  trying  to  get  the  women  to  talk  about  politics  as  a 
home  question,  as  something  that  women  care  for  and  are  greatly  interested 
in  ?    ^    *    ^ 

If  you  and  your  brothers  say,  We  don't  think  it  is  because  you  women  are 
inferior  that  we  don't  want  you  to  vote,  but  because  you  are  too  good  and 
nice  and  pure  to  come  into  politics,  then  I  say  to  you  :  My  friend,  we  don't 
expect  to  leave  politics  as  we  find  them  ;  not  at  all.  You  and  your  brothers, 
all  alone  by  yourselves  and  no  women  with  you,  have  constructed  this  pool 
that  you  talk  about  so  much,  and  you  don't  admire,  and  you  can't  make  it 
any  worse.  You  know  into  the  witch's  broth  they  pour  all  the  ingredients 
together.  Now,  you  have  all  the  ingredients  there  are,  except  women's  votes. 
Turn  -them  in  ;  it  may  be  the  branch  of  sweetness  and  cleaning  it  needs  ; 
can't  make  it  any  worse.  So  I  want  to  say  to  my  brothers,  we  are  coming 
in,  as  we  believe,  just  as  we  should  go  into  a  bachelor's  hall.  We  should  take 
along  broom  and  dust-brushes  and  dust-pans,  open  the  windows  and  ventilate 
the  place,  and  try  to  have  a  general  "  clarin  "  out,  and  that  is  exactly  what 
we  want  to  do  in  Old  Aunt  Columbia's  kitchen.  Brother  Jonathan  hasn't  kept 
house  there  in  an  orderly  and  cleanly  manner,  and  if  ever  a  place  needed 
"  clarin  "  out  we  think  it  is  the  kitchen  of  Uncle  Sam.  So  we  have  made  up 
our  minds  and  you  will  see  us  coming  in,  and  nothing  on  this  universal  earth 
will  keep  us  out  of  it.    It  seems  to  me  just  the  difference  between  the  smoking- 


Political  Conditions.  321 

car  and  the  parlor-car  ;  in  the  smoking-car  there  are  men  alone,  and  in  the 
parlor-car  men  and  women  together.  And  how  nice  and  wholesome  it  is  in  the 
parlor-car  ;  and  how  everything  but  wholesome  and  nice  it  is  in  the  smoking- 
car.  It  seems  to  us  women  that  every  great  thought  must  be  incarnated,  that 
disembodied  principles  and  disembodied  spirits  fare  about  equally  well  in  this 
work-a-day  world  ;  that  every  principle  seeks  an  incarnation  through  a 
brain  that  can  throw  it  out,  through  a  hand  that  can  cast  its  ballot  into  a  box, 
where  a  republic  creates  its  own  destiny.     *     *     * 

And  so  we  believe  in  this  magnificent  scene  of  politics  we  may  well  enter, 
because  the  weapons  are  not  carnal,  but  spiritual.  We  believe  that  when  coal 
in  the  mine  and  not  in  the  grate  will  warm  you;  when  flour  in  the  barrel 
and  not  in  the  loaf  will  feed  you,  when  wool  on  the  sheep's  back  and 
not  woven  into  cloth  wilL  clothe  you,  then  public  sentiment  that  is  lying 
around  loose  and  not  gathered  up  through  the  electric  battery  of  the  ballot- 
box,  or  sent  tingling  along  the  wires,  will  change  the  ways  of  men. 

God  made  woman  with  her  faculties,  her  traits,  her  way  of  looking  at  all  great 
questions  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  and  he  made  her  to  be  a  helpmeet 
for  man,  and  he  made  man  to  be  a  helpmeet  for  her  ;  he  made  them  to  stand 
side  by  side,  sun-crowned  ;  he  made  them  to  stand  in  a  republic,  as  I  believe, 
bearing  equally  its  magnificent  burdens.  I  like  to  see  how  men  are  grandly 
meeting  the  uprising  of  womanhood.  I  recognized,  and  all  of  us  here  do, 
that  it  was  our  big  brother  man  who  said,  Come  and  sit  down  beside  me  at 
the  banquet  of  Minerva.  I  recognize,  and  so  do  we  all,  that  it  was  a  man 
that  encouraged  us  when  we  made  our  first  ventures  ;  that  it  is  not  with 
any  special  purpose  to  keep  us  down  that  men  do  not  let  us  enter  into 
politics,  but  that  they  are  sort  of  considering  it ;  they  are  waiting  for  us  to 
be  a  little  more  anxious.  They  are  waiting  themselves  to  get  sort  of  wonted 
to  the  notion,  and  they  are  growing  rapidly.  The  time  is  not  distant,  and 
every  man  knows  it  who  hears  me. 

But  I  do  not  forget  that  if  we  come,  you  will  have  to  open  the  door,  and, 
therefore,  I  am  anxious,  in  my  own  heart,  to  think  only  kindly  of  you.  I 
am  most  desirous  to  do  you  justice,  and  I  want  to  tell  you  how  we  would 
like  to  build  the  platform.  For  our  widest  plank,  the  solidest,  and  the  safest 
we  will  have  right  at  the  foundation  of  the  new  platform  :  "  Peace  on  earth, 
good-will  to  men." 
Adjourned. 


SATURDAY,  MARCH  31,  1888. 

MORNING  SESSION. 
CONFERENCE  OF  THE  PIONEERS. 


Miss  Anthony.  In  memory  of  Lucretia  Mott,  who,  with  Mrs.  Stanton, 
called  the  first  convention  forty  years  ago,  and  in  accordance  with  the  cus- 
tom of  Friends,  the  religious  society  of  which  Mrs.  Mott  was  a  member  and 
an  approved  minister,  we  will  now  observe  a  season  of  silence. 

After  a  most  impressive  silence,  the  audience  joined  in  sing- 
ing the  hymn  by  John  G.  Whittier,  entitled  "  The  Reformers." 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  present  to  you  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  who, 
with  Lucretia  Mott,  called  the  first  convention  of  women  ever  held  in  the 
world.  We  promised  you  in  the  newspapers  that  we  would  have  here  the 
table  on  which  the  first  declaration  of  sentiments  was  written  at  Seneca  Falls, 
N.  Y.  But  we  found  the  possessors,  the  McClintocks,  felt  it  a  little  too 
precious  to  make  the  long  journey.  About  that  table  sat  Lucretia  Mott, 
Martha  C.  Wright,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Mrs.  Jane  Hunt,  Elizabeth 
McClintock  (now  Phillips),  and  her  mother,  Mrs.  Mary  Ann  McClintock. 

Mrs.  Stanton.  In  1840  the  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  was  called 
in  London.  In  harmony  with  the  invitation,  the  Anti-Slavery  Societies  in 
this  country  sent  over  several  women  as  delegates  .*  I  was  not  a  delegate, 
although  I  am  often  so  recorded.  My  husband  was,  and  that  was  the  occa- 
sion of  our  wedding  trip  to  the  Old  World. 

When  we  reached  the  convention  we  found  there  was  a  good  deal  of  objec- 
tion to  women  being  received  as  delegates.  It  was  something  that  had  never 
been  heard  of  in  England,  women  as  delegates  to  a  convention  ;  to  sit  as 
councilors ;  to  have  a  vote  in  its  proceedings.  So  the  whole  of  the  first  day 
was  taken  up  in  discussing  the  merits  of  that  question.  The  objections  were 
chiefly  drawn  from  the  Bible. 

At  last  it  was  decided  that  they  could  not  enter  the  convention,  but  they 
were  very  carefully  concealed  in  some  side  seats  hidden  by  a  curtain,  just  as 
you  find  the  choirs,  in  some  of  our  churches.  Joseph  Sturge  occupied  the 
chair.  Sitting  near  to  Lucretia,  I  said  to  her:  "Suppose  now  the  spirit 
should  move  you  to  speak,  what  could  Joseph  Sturge  do,  as  a  Quaker,  in  the 
chair?"  And  said  she  :  "  Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty. 
There  is  no  danger  of  the  Spirit  moving  me  to  speak  here." 

After  listening  to  all  the  arguments,  which  were  very  insulting  to  women, 
as  I  walked  home,  arm  in  arm,  with  Mrs.   Mott,  I  said  .  1"  It  seems  to  me 

♦The  women  denied  admission  as  delegates  to  that  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  were 
Lucretia  Mott,  Sarah  Pugh,  Abby  Kimber,  Elizabeth  Neal  (Gay),  Mary  Grew,  Philadelphia; 
Ann  Green  Phillips,  Emily  Winslow,  Abby  Southwick,  Boston. 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  823 

high  time  to  call  a  Woman's  Convention.  Here  are  these  men  from  all 
parts  of  the  globe  to  discuss  the  rights  of  the  negroes  to  freedom,  and  yet 
they  have  no  idea  of  any  rights  of  freedom  for  women  .'J  Eight  years  after, 
when  I  was  living  in  the  western  part  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Lucretia 
Mott  came  out  there  to  visit  a  sister,  Mrs.  Martha  C.  Wright.  I  then  pro- 
posed to  her  to  call  a  convention.  I  had  no  more  idea  of  what  was  involved 
in  calling  a  convention — no  more  idea  how  to  do  it,  than  to  make  a  steam 
engine.  Nevertheless,  I  was  determined  to  do  it  somehow,  so  half  a  dozen 
of  us  assembled  and  decided  that  we  would  advertise,  and  we  did  advertise 
in  the  county  paper,  occupying  a  space  about  as  long  as  your  finger,  no 
more.  .  We  wrote  a  few  letters  to  friends,  and  that  was  all  the  announce- 
ment we  gave. 

The  next  point  was  a  declaration.  So  we  rummaged  over  all  the  reports  of 
all  the  different  societies — peace,  anti-slavery,  and  temperance — but  none  of 
them  were  sufficiently  pronounced  for  us ;  they  didn't  touch  the  case.  A 
happy  thought  struck  us — that  our  fathers'  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  exactly  suited  to  our  needs.  We  read  it  carefully  over,  and  found  that 
precisely  the  grievances  that  our  fathers  had  to  complain  of  against  old  King 
George,  we  had  to  complain  of  against  our  ow.i  Saxon  fathers.  So  we 
adopted  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  we  were  delighted  with  our 
success,  that  we  had  a  grand  document,  and  were  not  obliged  to  write  it 
ourselves.  So,  gentlemen,  your  ancestors  did  that  good  thing  for  us.  It  was 
equally  satisfactory  to  find  that  we  had  the  same  number  of  grievances  with 
the  fathers — exactly  eighteen. 

Then  came^  the  resolutions,  and  with  them  we  had  a  great  deal  of  diffi- 
culty; however,  the  help  of  one  or  two  gentlemen  enabled  us  to  succeed 
in  getting  up  a  pretty  good  series;  but  when  they  were  finished  they  were 
not  exactly  what  I  wanted.  I  wanted  to  demand  the  right  of  suffrage  then 
and  there,  because  I  saw  that  was  the  fundamental  right  out  of  which  all 
others  should  necessarily  flow,  so  I  drew  up  a  very  short  resolution,  and  my 
husband  said  to  rae,[^  Now  you  make  the  whole  thing  ridiculous.  So  long  as 
you  advocated  simply  rights  of  education,  rights  of  property,  rights  of  chil- 
dren, and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  it  was  very  well,  but  the  idea  of  demanding 
the  right  of  suffrage  I'M  And  Lucretia  Mott  siid  the  same  thing,  and  all  the 
committee  who  were  interested  in  getting  up  the  meeting  were  opposed  to 
this  resolution.  So  I  seemingly  gave  it  up,  but  when  I  got  into  the  conven- 
tion I  determined  to  push  forward  my  resolution.  Unfortunately,  I  had  never 
said  a  word  in  public,  and  how  to  put  two  sentences  together  I  did  not 
know.  So  I  surveyed  the  Convention,  and  there  I  saw  Frederick  Douglass, 
and  I  knew  that  Frederick,  from  personal  experience,  was  just  the  man  for 
the  work,  so  I  presented  my  resolution,  then  hurried  to  his  side,  and  whispered 
in  his  ear  what  I  wanted  said,  and  he  went  along  awhile  very  well,  but  he 
didn't  speak  quite  fast  enough  for  me,  nor  say  all  I  wanted  said,  and  the  first 


324  International  Council  of  Women. 

thing  I  knew  I  was  on  my  feet  defending  the  resolution,  and  in  due  time 
Douglass  and  I  carried  the  whole  convention,  and  the  resolution  was  passed 
unanimously. 

Well,  I  assure  you,  my  friends,  I  was  delighted  with  the  success  of  the 
whole  thing.  I  had  read  the  Constitution  and  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, and  understood  the  genius  of  our  Government,  and  I  had  read  the 
opinions  of  great  men,  and  I  found  they  were  all  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage. 
Now,  said  I,  the  world  will  accept  the  argument  at  once.  It  is  just,  it  is 
right,  and  everybody  must  see  it  as  plainly  as  I  do.  Imagine  my  surprise 
after  the  joy  I  felt  in  the  perfect  success  of  the  convention,  for  we  had  a 
crowded  house,  and  Lucretia  Mott  and  her  sister,  Martha  C.  Wright,  and 
other  women  from  the  Society  of  Friends,  had  made  admirable  speeches, 
and  we  had  a  magnificent  man  in  the  chair,  James  Mott,  the  husband  of 
Lucretia  Mott,  tall  and  stately,  and  very  distinguished  in  appearance. 

In  a  few  days  the  papers  began  to  come  in.  I  believe  every  paper  from 
Maine  to  Louisiana  published  that  declaration  and  made  comments  and  ridi- 
culed the  whole  thing.  I  was  astounded.  I  had  no  idea  there  would  be  one 
word  of  ridicule  about  the  matter.  My  good  father,  who  was  then  attend- 
ing supreme  court  in  New  York,  hearing  of  this,  took  the  night  train  and 
rushed  up  to  Seneca  Falls  to  see  if  I  was  insane.  If  I  hadn't  had  a  remark- 
ably good  constitution  and  a  very  cheerful  temperament,  I  think  I  should 
have  been  put  into  the  insane  asylum.  I  heard  nothing  but  ridicule.  Many 
of  the  women  who  had  put  their  names  down  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  con- 
vention, as  subscribers  to  the  declaration,  in  a  few  days  hurried  to  take  them 
off.  Men  were  in  consternation  about  the  conduct  of  their  sisters,  mothers, 
and  wives  in  that  convention.  I  never  can  tell  you,  I  never  can  describe  to 
any  one  the  humiliation  I  felt,  and  especially  as  I  knew  perfectly  well  that  I 
was  right.  When  I  met  my  father,  my  sister,  who  had  also  given  her  adhe- 
sion to  the  principles,  was  in  great  consternation  as  to  what  we  should  say  in 
defense  of  ourselves.  I  said  I  thought  we  had  everything  to  say,  and  I 
really  couldn't  see  what  my  father  had  to  say  on  the  other  side.  We  talked 
the  matter  over  until  midnight,  and  I  was  more  than  ever  convinced  that  I 
.was  right,  for  my  father  was  a  logical  and  sensible  man,  and  he  could  not 
answer  my  arguments. 

Perhaps  I  might  have  subsided  altogether  if  it  hadn't  been  that  shortly 
after  that  I  met  Susan  B.  Anthony,  whom  we  have  always  called  the 
Napoleon  of  our  movement.  Then  we  put  our  heads  together  and  we 
commenced  our  work  in  earnest  with  a  general  attack  all  along  the  line. 
We  besieged  the  legislature  every  year ;  we  looked  all  around  the  country 
and  wherever  we  saw  a  convention  of  men  having  a  nice  time,  we  at  once 
sent  a  resolution  demanding  recognition.  And  I  will  tell  you  how  we 
managed.  I  would  write  the  speeches  and  resolutions,  and  Susan  would  go 
to  the  conventions  and  fire  them  off.     I  had  a  family  of  young  children  and 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  325 

it  was  not  convenient  for  me  to  go,  but  I  accepted   every  invitation  to  do 
everything,  because  I  knew  Susan  could  do  it. 

Martha  C.  Wright,  Mrs.  Seward,  Susan  B.  Anthony,  and  myself  were 
often  in  consultation  to  see  what  more  we  could  do  to  keep  up  the  agitation. 
We  tormented  our  legislators  for  the  woman's  property  bill  in  New  York, 
the  first  State  that  ever  passed  that  bill,  and  the  first  State  in  the  world  that 
ever  gave  to  married  women  the  rights  of  property.  Until  that  time  we 
had  been  under  the  old'common  law  of  England,  under  which  women  were 
practically  slaves,  having  no  rights  whatever  that  white  men  were  bound  to 
respect.  Year  after  year  some  new  civil  rights  were  accorded  us.  Then  we 
made  an  attack  on  the  schools  and  the  colleges,  although  at  one  time  in  all 
the  educational  conventions  not  a  woman's  voice  was  heard,  though  perhaps 
six  or  seven  hundred  of  them  would  be  sitting  around  like  so  many  wall- 
flowers. 

And  so  in  the  temperance  meetings — but  I  leave  Antoinette  Brown  Black- 
well  to  tell  you  about  that.  But  when  we  think  of  all  that  has  been  done, 
we  can  hardly  believe  what  we  see  possible.  From  that  time  on,  our  con- 
ventions began  to  be  held  all  over  the  country  ;  the  key-note  was  struck  in 
New  York,  then,  Ohio,  Massachusetts  and  Indiana  soon  followed,  holding 
their  conventions  from  time  to  time,  year  by  year  growing  larger  and  larger. 
The  advanced  legislation  in  New  York  was  copied  by  many  of  the  new  States 
as  they  came  into  the  Union  and  by  some  of  the  older  States.  It  is  hardly 
possible  to  give  you  in  detail  all  that  we  did  from  year  to  year  and  all  that 
we  encountered  in  the  way  of  ridicule  and  persecution. 

Ridicule  was  the  chief  weapon  of  the  press.  IWe  were  caricatured  in  all  the 
papers  until  really  the  majority  of  people  supposed  that  the  women  on  the 
suffrage  platform  had  horns  and  hoofsj  And  now,  as  we  sit  here,  how 
changed  is  the  scene  !  Although  at  our  first  convention  we  were  in  a  small 
Methodist  church,  and  held  many  afterwards  in  the  open  air,  in  barns,  in 
depots,  in  the  dining-rooms  of  hotels,  here  to-day,  at  the  end  of  forty  years, 
we  have  the  most  beautiful  building  in  the  Capital,  with  magnificent  audi- 
ences, and  most  complimentary  notices  by  the  press  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other.  This  is  a  great  encouragement  to  the  women  who  are 
present,  and  I  want  to  give  you  a  word  to  take  to  your  homes.  As  soon  as 
you  see  a  grand  truth,  utter  it,  and  though  you  may  be  ridiculed  in  starting, 
as  the  years  go  by,  it  will  be  received.  In  this  long  struggle  I  have  never 
felt  that  we  stood  alone,  for  as  representatives  of  a  living  truth  we  are  ever 
linked  with  the  great  and  grand  of  all  ages,  in  every  latitude  and  clime,  with 
those  able  and  willing  to  live  or  die  for  a  principle. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  should  have  informed  the  audience  that  the  picture  on 
the  platform  is  that  of  Lucretia  Mott.  I  hope  all  will  feel  that  her  spirit  is 
with  us  this  morning.  If  spirits  are  anywhere,  and  I  believe  they  are  every- 
where, I  know  we  have  that  loved  and  venerated  pioneer  with  us  to-day. 


326  International  Council  of  Women. 

John  W.  Hutchinson,  the  one  survivor  of  the  Old  Granite  State  Minstrels, 
is  with  us  this  morning.  Abbie,  his  sister,  is  not  able  to  be  present.  It  was 
my  hope  through  all  the  months  of  getting  up  this  Council  that  we  should 
have  both  John  and  Abbie  with  us. 

Mr.  Hutchinson.  There  is  a  moment  in  the  life  of  every  mortal  that  is 
a  little  better  than  any  other,  and  this  seems  to  me  the  pleasant  moment  in 
my  life,  to  be  reckoned  worthy  of  this  position.  Having  gone  through  the 
anti-slavery  struggle,  and  sung  the  jubilee  song  over  the  downfall  of  Amer- 
ican slavery,  and  engaged  in  the  temperance  reform  until  we  have  almost 
seen  victory,  now  to  see  the  culmination  of  this  glorious  struggle,  my  heart 
is  full.  Yes,  the  spirits  of  the  glorious  departed  may  well  mingle  with  this 
blessed  audience  to-day. 

GREETING  TO  THE  PIONEERS. 
All  hail,  ye  brave  and  noble  band, 

We  greet  with  cheer  and  song. 
Most  honored  queens  of  all  the  land. 

Who  struggled  'gainst  the  wrong. 
Bright  hopes  we  bring  from  East  and  West, 

Each  sister's  heart  to  cheer. 
Though  oft  oppressed,  your  cause  is  blest, 

Your  crown  of  triumph  near. 

For  two-score  years,  through  doubts  and  fears 

And  conflict  fierce  and  long, 
We've  battled  'gainst  the  host  of  sin 

And  fortresses  of  wrong. 
With  our  great  leader  pressing  on, 

Whose  spirit  ne'er  could  yield, 
Lucretia  waved  the  moral  sword 

That  conquers  every  field. 

Our  hearts  this  day  would  tribute  pay 

The  staunch  and  faithful  three— 
Our  Stanton  brave  and  Lucy  true, 

And  dauntless  Susan  B. 
We  see  the  fruitage  of  the  seed 
,  They  planted  long  ago. 

What  matter,  then,  that  forty  years 

Have  crowned  their  heads  with  snow  ? 

I 
We  honor  those  who  watered  well 

The  precious  plants  which  grew, 
Because  the  germs  had  life  divine 

And  tears  are  holy  dew. 
Beneath  the  shelter  of  the  trees, 

To  which  those  plants  shall  grow, 
A  countless  host  in  future  years 

True  blessedness  shall  know. 

With  hopes  renewed  again  we  come 

In  love  and  joy  to  greet ; 
Throughout  our  ranks  no  feuds  exist, 

Our  unity's  complete. 
We're  standing  on  the  mountain  top, 

There's  sunlight  on  our  way ; 
The  everlasting  hills  of  truth 

Reach  up  to  endless  day. 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  327 

From  fields  of  conquest  and  renown 

Our  trophies  rich  we  bring. 
This  Council  will  rejoice  to  hear 

The  victor's  song  we  sing. 
Press  forward,  then,  our  cause  is  just ; 

Our  triumph  all  shall  hail ; 
From  sea  to  sea,  let  all  be  free ; 

There's  no  such  word  as  fail. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  should  have  said  that  Mr.  Hutchinson's  song  is  origi- 
nal, but  I  think  you  all  must  have  made  this  discovery,  from  its  appropriate- 
ness to  the  occasion. 

Before  I  introduce  Frederick  Douglass,  I  want  to  ask  the  women  on  the 
platform  this  morning,  who  attended  that  first  Seneca  Falls  Convention,  to 
stand  up.  They  are  Catharine  A.  F.  Stebbins,  Sarah  Anthony  Burtis,  Amy 
Post,  Mary  Hallovvell,  Sarah  Willis,  of  Rochester,  and  Elizabeth  Cady 
Stanton.  The  Seneca  Falls  Convention  adjourned  to  meet  two  weeks  after 
in  Rochester,  and  my  mother  and  father  and  sister  Mary,  though  not  at 
Seneca  Falls,  were  at  the  Rochester  meeting.  I  was  teaching  school  in 
Eastern  New  York,  and  in  August  following  these  two  meetings,  I  went 
home  to  Rochester,  and  they  told  me  all  about  Lucretia  Mott  and  her  beau, 
tiful  face  and  words,  and  about  Mrs.  Stanton,  how  beautiful  and  grand — 
never  were  such  words  spoken  by  anybody.  My  father  was  most  enthusiastic 
about  it,  and  I  laughed  and  said,  "  I  think  you  are  getting  a  good  deal  ahead 
of  the  times."  I  wasn't  ready  to  vote,  didn't  want  to  vote,  but  I  did  want 
equal  pay  for  equal  work.     I  now  introduce  to  you  Frederick  Douglass. 

Mr.  Douglass.  I  come  to  this  platform  with  unusual  diffidence.  Al- 
though I  have  long  been  identified  with  the  Woman  Suffrage  movement, 
and  have  often  spoken  in  its  favor,  I  am  somewhat  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to 
say  on  this  really  great  and  uncommon  occasion,  where  so  much  has  been 
said. 

Men  have  very  little  business  here  as  speakers  anyhow,  and  if  they  come 
here  at  all,  they  should  take  back  benches  and  wrap  themselves  in  silence, 
for  this  is  an  International  Council,  not  of  men,  but  of  women,  and  women 
should  have  all  the  say  in  it.  This  is  their  day  in  court.  *  *  *  There 
was  a  time  when,  perhaps,  we  men  could  help  a  little.  It  was  when  this 
woman  suffrage  cause  was  in  its  cradle,  when  it  was  not  big  enough  to  go 
alone,  when  it  had  to  be  taken  in  the  arms  of  its  mother  from  Seneca  Falls 
to  Rochester  for  baptism.  I  then  went  along  with  it  and  offered  my  serv- 
ices, for  then  it  needed  help  ;  but  now  it  can  afford  to  dispense  with  me  and 
all  of  my  sex.  Then  its  friends  were  few ;  now  its  friends  are  many.  Then 
it  was  wrapped  in  obscurity ;  now  it  is  lifted  in  sight  of  the  whole  civilized 
world,  and  the  people  of  all  lands  and  languages  now  give  it  their  hearty 
support.  Truly  the  change  is  vast  and  wonderful.  I  thought  my  eye  of 
faith  was  tolerably  clear,  when  I  attended  those  meetings  in  Seneca  Falls  and 
Rochester,  but  it  was  far  too  dim  to  see,  at  the  end  of  forty  years,  a  result 
so  imposing  as  this  International  Council.     *     *     * 


328  International  Council  of  Women. 

There  may  be  some  well-meaning  people  in  this  audience  who  have  never 
attended  a  Woman  Suffrage  Convention,  never  heard  a  woman  suffrage 
speech,  never  read  a  woman  suffrage  newspaper,  and  they  may  be  surprised 
that  those  who  speak  here  do  not  argue  the  question.  It  may  be  kind  to  tell 
them  that  our  cause  has  passed  beyond  the  period  of  arguing.  The  demand 
of  the  hour  is  not  argument,  but  assertion,  firm  and  inflexible  assertion, 
assertion  which  has  more  than  the  force  of  an  argument.  If  there  is  any 
argument  to  be  made  it  must  be  made  by  the  opponents,  not  by  the  friends 
of  woman  suffrage.  Let  those  who  want  argument  examine  the  ground 
upon  which  they  base  their  own  claim  to  the  right  to  vote.  They  will  find 
that  there  is  not  one  reason,  not  one  consideration  which  they  can  urge  in 
support  of  man's  claim  to  vote,  which  does  not  equally  support  the  right  of 
a  woman  to  vote. 

There  is  to-day,  however,  a  special  reason  for  omitting  argument.  This 
is  the  end  of  the  fourth  decade  of  the  woman  suffrage  movement,  a  kind  of 
jubilee  which  naturally  turns  our  minds  to  the  past.  Ever  since  this  Council 
has  been  in  session,  my  thoughts  have  been  reverting  to  the  past.  I  have 
been  thinking,  more  or  less,  of  the  scene  presented  forty  years  ago  in  the 
little  Wesleyan  Methodist  church  at  Seneca  Falls,  the  manger  in  which  this 
organized  suffrage  movement  was  born.  It  w&s  a  very  small  thing  then.  It 
was  not  then  big  enough  to  be  abused,  or  loud  enough  to  make  itself  heard 
outside,  and  only  a  few  of  those  who  saw  it,  had  any  notion  that  the  little 
thing  would  live.  I  have  been  thinking,  too,  of  the  strong  conviction,  the 
noble  courage,  the  sublime  faith  in  God  and  man,  it  required  at  that  time,  to 
set  this  suffrage  ball  in  motion.  The  history  of  the  world  has  given  to  us 
many  sublime  undertakings,  but  none  more  sublime  than  this. 

It  was  a  great  thing  for  the  friends  of  peace  to  organize  in  opposition  to 
war  ;  it  was  a  great  thing  for  the  friends  of  temperance  to  organize  against 
intemperance;  it  was  a  great  thing  for  humane  people  to  organize  in  oppo- 
sition to  slavery ;  but  it  was  a  much  greater  thing,  in  view  of  all  the  circum- 
stances, for  woman  to  organize  herself  in  opposition  to  her  exclusion  from 
participation  in  government.  The  reason  is  obvious.  War,  intemper- 
ance, and  slavery  are  open,  undisguised,  palpable  evils.  The  best  feelings 
of  human  nature  revolt  at  them.  We  could  easily  make  men  see  the  misery, 
the  debasement,  the  terrible  suffering  caused  by  intemperance  ;  we  could 
easily  make  men  see  the  desolation  wrought  by  war,  and  the  hell-black  hor- 
rors of  chattel  slavery;  but  the  case  was  different  in  the  movement  for 
woman  suffrage.  Men  took  for  granted  all  that  could  be  said  against  intem- 
perance, war,  and  slavery. 

But  no  such  advantage  was  found  in  the  beginning  of  the  cause  of  suf- 
frage for  woman.  On  the  contrary,  everything  in  her  condition  was  sup- 
posed to  be  lovely,  just  as  it  should  be.  She  had  no  rights  denied  nor 
wrong  to  redress.     She  herself  had  no  suspicion  but  that  all  was  going  well 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  329 

with  her.  She  floated  along  on  the  tide  of  life,  as  her  mother  and  grand- 
mother had  done  before  her,  as  in  a  dream  of  Paradise.  Her  wrongs,  if  she 
had  any,  were  too  occult  to  be  seen  and  too  light  to  be  felt.  It  required  a 
daring  voice  and  a  determined  hand  to  awake  her  from  this  delightful  dream, 
and  call  the  nation  to  account  for  the  rights  and  opportunities  of  which  it 
was  depriving  her.  It  was  well  understood  at  the  beginning,  that  woman 
would  not  thank  us  for  disturbing  her  by  this  call  to  duty,  and  it  was  known 
that  man  would  denounce  and  scorn  us  for  such  a  daring  innovation  upon 
the  established  order  of  things.  But  this  did  not  appall  or  delay  the  word 
and  work.     *     *     * 

Then  who  were  we,  for  I  count  myself  in,  who  did  this  thing?  We  were 
few  in  numbers,  moderate  in  resources,  and  very  little  known  in  the  world. 
The  most  that  we  had  to  commend  us,  was  a  firm  conviction  that  we  were  in 
the  right,  and  a  firm  faith  that  the  right  must  ultimately  prevail.  But  the 
case  was  well  considered.  Let  no  man  imagine  that  the  step  was  taken  reck- 
lessly and  thoughtlessly.  Mrs.  Stanton  had  dwelt  upon  it  at  least  six  years 
before  she  declared  it  in  the  Rochester  convention.  Walking  with  her  from 
the  house  of  Joseph  and  Thankful  Southwick,  two  of  the  noblest  people  I 
ever  knew,  Mrs.  Stanton,  with  an  earnestness  that  I  shall  never  forget,  un- 
folded her  views  on  this  woman  question  precisely  as  she  has  in  this  Council. 
This  was  six  and  forty  years  ago,  and  it  was  not  until  six  years  after,  that  she 
ventured  to  make  her  formal,  pronounced,  and  startling  demand  for  the  bal- 
lot. There  are  few  facts  in  my  humble  life  to  which  I  look  back  with 
more  satisfaction  than  to  the  one,  recorded  in  the  History  of  Woman  Suffrage, 
that  I  was  sufficiently  enlightened  at  that  early  day,  and  when  only  a  few 
years  from  slavery,  to  support  Mrs.  Stanton's  resolution  for  woman  suffrage. 
I  have  done  very  little  in  this  world  in  which  to  glory,  except  this  one  act, 
and  I  certainly  glory  in  that.  When  I  ran  away  from  slavery,  it  was  for  my- 
self; when  I  advocated  emancipation,  it  was  for  my  people;  but  when  I  stood 
up  for  the  rights  of  woman,  self  was  out  of  the  question,  and  I  found  a  little 
nobility  in  the  act. 

In  estimating  the  forces  with  which  this  suffrage  cause  has  had  to  contend 
during  these  forty  years,  the  fact  should  be  remembered  that  relations  of 
long  standing  beget  a  character  in  the  parties  to  them,  in  favor  of  their  con- 
tinuance. Time  itself  is  a  conservative  power — a  very  conservative  power. 
One  shake  of  his  hoary  locks  will  sometimes  paralyze  the  hand  and  palsy  the 
tongue  of  the  reformer.  The  relation  of  man  to  woman  has  the  advantage 
of  all  the  ages  behind  it.  Those  who  oppose  a  readjustment  of  this  relation 
tell  us  that  what  is,  always  was,  and  always  will  be,  world  without  end. 
But  we  have  heard  this  argument  before,  and  if  we  live  very  long  we  shall 
hear  it  again.  When  any  aged  error  shall  be  assailed,  and  any  old  abuse  is 
to  be  removed,  we  shall  meet  this  same  old  argument.  Man  has  been  so 
long  the  king  and  woman  the  subject — man  has  been  so  long  accustomed  to 
22 


330  International  Council  of  Women. 

command  and  woman  to  obey — that  both  parties  to  the  relation  have  been 
hardened  into  their  respective  places,  and  thus  has  been  piled  up  a  mountain 
of  iron  against  woman's  enfranchisement.     *     *     * 

The  universality  of  man's  rule  over  woman  is  another  factor  in  the  resist- 
ance to  the  woman  suffrage  movement.  We  are  pointed  to  the  fact  that  men 
have  not  only  always  ruled  over  women,  but  that  they  do  so  rule  everywhere, 
and  they  easily  think  that  a  thing  that  is  done  everywhere  must  be  right. 
Though  the  fallacy  of  this  reasoning  is  too  transparent  to  need  refutation, 
it  still  exerts  a  powerful  influence.     *     *     * 

All  good  causes  are  mutually  helpful.  The  benefits  accruing  from  this 
movement  for  the  equal  rights  of  woman  are  not  confined  to  woman  only. 
They  will  be  shared  by  every  effort  to  promote  the  progress  and  welfare  of 
mankind  everywhere  and  in  all  ages.  It  was  an  example  and  a  prophecy  of 
what  can  be  accomplished  against  strongly  opposing  forces,  against  time- 
hallowed  abuses,  against  deeply  intrenched  error,  against  world-wide  usage, 
and  against  the  settled  judgment  of  mankind,  by  a  few  earnest  won, en,  clad 
only  in  the  panoply  of  truth,  and  determined  to  live  and  die  for  what  they 
considered  a  righteous  cause. 

I  do  not  forget  the  thoughtful  remark  of  our  President  in  the  opening  ad- 
dress to  this  International  Council,  reminding  us  of  the  incompleteness  of 
our  work.  The  remark  was  wise  and  timely.  Nevertheless,  ro  man  can 
compare  the  present  with  the  past ;  the  obstacles  that  then  opposed  us,  and 
the  influences  that  now  favor  us,  the  meeting  in  the  little  Methodist  chapel 
forty  years  ago,  and  the  Council  in  this  vast  theater  to-day,  without  admit- 
ting that  woman's  cause  is  already  a  brilliant  success.  But,  however  this 
may  be,  and  whatever  the  future  may  have  in  store  for  us,  one  thing  is  cer- 
tain— this  new  revolution  in  human  thought  will  never  go  backward.  When 
a  great  truth  once  gets  abroad  in  the  world,  no  power  on  earth  can  imprison 
it  or  prescribe  its  limits  or  suppress  it.  It  is  bound  to  go  on  till  it  becomes 
the  thought  of  the  world.  Such  a  truth  is  woman's  right  to  equal  liberty 
with  man.  She  was  born  with  it.  It  was  hers  before  she  comprehended  it. 
It  is  inscribed  upon  all  the  powers  and  faculties  of  her  soul,  and  no  custom, 
law,  nor  usage  can  ever  destroy  it.  Now  that  it  has  got  fairly  fixed  in  the 
minds  of  the  few,  it  is  bound  to  become  fixed  in  the  minds  of  the  many,  and 
be  supported  at  last  by  a  great  crowd  of  witnesses,  which  no  man  can  num- 
ber and  no  power  can  withstand. 

The  women  who  have  thus  far  carried  on  this  agitation  have  already  em- 
bodied and  illustrated  Theodore  Parker's  three  grades  of  human  greatness. 
The  first  is  greatness  in  executive  and  administrative  ability  ;  second,  great- 
f  ness  in  the  ability  to  organize ;  and,  third,  in  the  ability  to  discover  truth. 
Wherever  these  three  elements  of  power  are  combined  in  any  movement, 
there  is  a  reasonable  ground  to  believe  in  its  final  success,  and  these  elements 
of  power  have  been  manifest  in  the  women  who  have  had  the  movement  in 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  331 

hand  from  the  beginning.  They  are  seen  in  the  order  which  has  character- 
ized the  proceedings  of  this  Council.  They  are  seen  in  the  depth  and  com- 
prehensiveness of  the  discussions  held  in  this  Council.  They  are  seen  in  the 
fervid  eloquence  and  downright  earnestness  with  which  women  advocate 
their  cause.  They  are  seen  in  the  profound  attention  with  which  woman  is 
heard  in  her  own  behalf.  They  are  seen  in  the  steady  growth  and  onward 
march  of  the  movement,  and  they  will  be  seen  in  the  final  triumph  of  woman's 
cause,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  throughout  the  world. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  persistent  of  the  pioneers,  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone. 

Mrs.  Stone.  We  celebrate  to-day  the  fortieth  anniversary  of  the  first 
Woman's  Rights  Convention,  held  at  Seneca  Falls  in  1848.  But,  long  be- 
fore our  time,  the  idea  of  woman's  rights  was  in  the  air.  The  war  of  the 
Revolution  prepared  the  way  for  it.  More  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  the 
sister  of  Robert  Lee,  of  Virginia,  wrote  to  her  brother  refusing  to  pay  her 
taxes,  on  the  ground  that,  by  our  theory  of  government,  taxation  and  repre- 
sentation went  together.  But  the  idea  became  incarnate  in  the  anti-slavery 
struggle.  Women  who  heard  the  plea  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Wen- 
dell Phillips  for  equal  huma"n  rights,  saw  that  the  argument  applied  to  women 
not  less  than  to  the  slaves.  They  took  it  in,  and  on  ten  thousand  hill-tops, 
and  in  as  many  valleys,  they  nursed  the  idea  of  equal  rights  for  women. 
Men  felt  it  too. 

The  opportunity  of  equal  education  for  women  began  when  Oberlin  Col- 
lege was  founded,  in  1832.  The  charter  pledged  the  college  to  give  "  to  the 
misjudged  and  neglected  sex  all  the  instructive  privileges  which  have  hitherto 
unreasonably  distinguished  the  leading  sex  from  theirs." 

This  was  the  gray  dawn  of  our  morning.  Its  sure  day  came,  when  the 
sisters  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimke,  and  Abby  Kelly  began  to  speak  publicly, 
in  behalf  of  the  slaves.  Public  speaking  by  women  was  regarded  as  some- 
thing monstrous.  All  the  cyclones  and  blizzards  which  prejudice,  bigotry, 
and  custom  could  raise,  were  let  loose  upon  these  three  peerless  women.  But 
they  held  fast  to  the  eternal  justice.  Above  the  howling  of  mobs,  the  din 
of  the  press,  and  the  thunders  of  the  pulpit,  they  heard  the  wail  of  the  slave 
and  the  cry  of  the  mothers  sold  from  their  children.  Literally  taking  their 
lives  in  their  hands,  they  went  out  to  labor,  "remembering  those  in  bonds 
as  bound  with  them."  In  1837  Pennsylvania  Hall,  in  Philadelphia,  was  set 
on  fire  and  burned  down  while  Angelina  Grimke  was  speaking.  In  1838 
she  spoke  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  Massachusetts.  It 
was  packed,  as  it  probably  never  was  before  or  since.  The  great  crowd  had 
gathered,  some  from  interest  in  the  slavery  question,  more  from  curiosity  to 
hear  a  woman,  and  some  intent  upon  making  an  uproar.  Then  this  quiet 
Quaker  woman  arose,  utterly  forgetful  of  herself,  and,  with  anointed  lips, 
and  eloquence  rare  and  wonderful,  she  pleaded  for  the  slave.     The  curious 


332  International  Council  of  Women. 

forgot  their  curiosity,  the  mobocrat  dropped  his  brickbat  before  the  solemn 
earnestness  of  this  woman,  who,  for  the  slave's  sake,  had  braved  the  mob 
and  the  fagot,  who  could  neither  heed  the  uplifted  finger  that  cried  shame, 
nor  cease  for  the  texts  and  sermons,  or  for  the  odium  of  the  newspapers. 
To  herself,  she  was  not  flying  in  the  face  of  Providence.  It  was  no  hunger 
for  personal  notoriety  that  had  brought  her  there,  but  a  great,  earnest  pur- 
pose that  must  find  expression.  How  great  a  debt  the  woman's  rights  move- 
ment owes  to  her  !  But  one  such  speech,  or  many,  could  not  kill  the  hoary 
prejudice  of  centuries.  Circumstances  soon  compelled  the  sisters  Grimke  to 
leave  the  public  field.  Abby  Kelly  remained,  to  bear  alone  the  opprobrium 
that  was  still  heaped  upon  the  woman,  who  so  far  departed  from  her  sphere 
as  to  speak  in  public. 

Whatever  of  tribulation  any  of  us  have  known,  in  the  advocacy  of  this 
reform,  it  has  been  play  in  comparison  with  the  long,  unrelieved  torture 
endured  by  Abby  Kelly,  in  the  battle  which  finally  secured  the  right  of  free 
speech  for  all  women.  A  sharp  onset  with  shot  and  shell  is  no  trifle,  but  to 
stand  year  after  year,  as  Abby  Kelly  stood,  in  the  thick  of  the  fight,  while 
pulpit  and  press,  editors  and  clergy,  poured  out  upon  her  vials  of  bitterness 
and  wrath,  required  the  courage  of  a  martyr  and  the  faith  of  a  saint. 

Think  what  it  would  be  to  live  in  the  midst  of  perpetual  scorn  and 
reproach  ;  to  go  to  church  and  find  the  sermon  directed  at  you  from  the  text, 
"  This  Jezebel  has  come  among  us  also,"  and  then,  with  no  chance  to  reply, 
to  sit  and  hear  all  manner  of  lies  told  to  the  congregation  about  you  ;  at 
another  time  to  meet  such  insults  under  the  roof  where  you  sought  shelter, 
that  you  fled  from  it  fasting,  after  thirty-six  hours.  These  things  were  actual 
incidents,  and  only  a  small  part  of  what  she  endured.  If  Abby  Kelly  had 
been  a  weak  woman,  one  less  noble  or  more  self-seeking,  she  would  have  aban- 
doned that  terrible  pioneer's  post,  and  taken  an  easier  way.  She  could 
endure  anything  for  the  slave,  but  she  found  foes  in  the  anti-slavery  house- 
hold, men  whose  love  for  the  cause  of  freedom,  was  less  than  their  prejudice 
against  a  woman's  speaking  in  public.  They  tried  to  silence  her.  For  a 
woman  to  serve  on  a  committee  was  thought  as  shocking  as  for  her  to  speak. 
When  Abby  Kelly  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Business  Committee  of 
the  Anti-Slavery  Society  she  was  asked  to  resign."  She  said,  "Is  it  because 
I  am  not  thought  to  be  competent?  If  so,  I  will  resign."  "  Oh,  no;  we 
know  you  are  competent."  "Then,"  said  she,  "  if  it  is  because  I  am  a 
woman,  I  will  riot  resign." 

We  can  have  some  conception  of  the  situation,  when  we  remember  that  the 
Anti-Slavery  Society  divided  on  the  matter,  and  thereafter  there  were  two 
anti-slavery  societies :  one  that  permitted  women  to  speak  and  one  that  did 
not.  The  great  service  that  Abby  Kelly  rendered  to  the  slave  is  less  than 
that  which  she  rendered  to  women,  when,  at  such  a  price,  she  earned  for  all 
of  us  the  right  of  free  speech.    Long  after  this  right  was  conceded,  the  effects 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  333 

of  the  old  odium  lingered,  and  she  was  regarded,  by  those  who  did  not  know 
her,  as  a  pestilent  person,  no  better  than  she  should  be.  Even  as  late  as  the 
Worcester  Convention,  in  1850,  some  of  the  managers  of  the  meeting  con- 
ferred together  beforehand  as  to  whether  it  was  best  to  invite  her  to  speak, 
"she  was  so  odious."  But  she  was  present,  and  in  her  brief  speech  said  : 
"  Sisters,  bloody  feet  have  worn  smooth  the  path  by  which  you  come  up  here." 
It  was  her  own  bleeding  feet  that  had  worn  the  way,  and  yet  some  of  that 
convention  feared  her  for  the  odium  she  would  bring.  So  much  for  the  three 
peerless  pioneers,  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimke,  and  Abby  Kelly. 

As  reminiscences  are  the  order  of  the  day,  and  a  conference  of  pioneers  is 
always  something  of  "  an  experience  meeting,"  I  will  tell  a  few  of  my  own 
early  experiences.  They  will  show  the  growth  of  the  cause  and  the  great 
gulf  between  the  present  and  the  past.  In  1837  the  Association  of  Congre- 
gational Ministers  of  Massachusetts,  issued  a  pastoral  letter  against  the  public 
speaking  of  women,  calling  attention  to  the  "  danger  which  threatened  the 
female  character  with  wide-spread  and  permanent  injury."  The  letter  was 
read  in  all  the  churches.  I  sat  in  the  gallery  of  the  church  at  North  Brook- 
field  and  heard  it  read.  The  body  of  the  house  below  was  overflowing  with 
people  and  black  with  clergymen.  Rev.  Mr.  Blagden,  who  was  supposed  to 
be  the  author  of  the  letter,  walked  up  and  down  the  broad  aisle  while  it  was 
being  read,  and  turning  his  head  from  side  to  side  as  he  looked  at  us  in  the 
gallery,  his  manner  said,  "  Now  we  have  silenced  you."  But  he  had  only 
sowed  the  seed  of  whose  abundant  harvest  this  meeting  is  a  part.  I  was  a 
young  school-teacher,  still  in  my  teens.  If  I  had  ever  felt  bound  to  silence 
by  misinterpretations  of  Scripture  texts,  or  believed  that  equal  rights  did 
not  belong  to  women,  that  pastoral  letter  broke  my  bonds. 

Six  years  later  I  went  to  Oberlin  on  purpose  to  study  Greek  and  Hebrew, 
and  to  read  the  texts  in  the  original,  and  there  I  found  the  inspired  truth, 
that  God  loves  his  daughters  as  well  as  he  does  his  sons.  I  graduated  in 
1847,  and  during  that  year  made  my  first  public  speech  for  woman's  rights 
in  my  brother's  pulpit,  at  Gardner,  Mass.  The  next  year  I  began  to  lecture 
for  the  Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  Society,  but  the  idea  of  equal  rights  for 
women  had  such  possession  of  me,  that  I  scattered  it  into  every  speech. 
Hiram  Powers'  statue  of  the  Greek  slave  was  on  exhibition  in  Boston.  I 
went  up  to  see  it  early  one  morning.  No  other  person  was  present.  There 
it  stood  in  the  silence,  with  fettered  hands  and  half-averted  face,  so  emble- 
matic of  woman.  The  hot  tears  came  to  my  eyes  at  the  thought  of  millions 
of  women  who  must  be  freed.  At  that  evening's  meeting  I  poured  all  my 
heart  out  about  it.  At  the  close  Rev.  Samuel  May,  who  was  the  general 
agent  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  came  to  me,  and  with  kind  words  for  what 
I  had  said,  he  admonished  me  that,  however  true,  it  was  out  of  place  in'  an 
anti-slavery  meeting.  Of  course  he  was  right.  I  said  :  "  Well,  Mr.  May,  I 
was  a  woman  before  I  was  an  abolitionist,  and  I  must  speak  for  women.     I 


334  International  Council  of  Women. 

will  not  go  any  more  as  a  lecturer  for  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  but  will  work 
wholly  for  woman's  rights." 

An  arrangement  was  made,  however,  that  I  should  speak  Saturday  evening 
and  Sunday  for  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and  be  free  to  lecture  the  rest  of  the 
week  for  woman's  rights.  Then  I  undertook  what  was,  so  far  as  I  knew,  a  soli- 
tary battle  for  woman's  rights.  Outside  the  little  circle  of  Abolitionists,  I  knew 
of  no  one  who  sympathized  with  the  idea.  The  papers  were  not  as  ready 
then  to  report  a  woman's  rights'  meeting  as  they  are  to-day,  and  the  news  of 
the  Seneca  Falls  convention  had  not. reached  me.  In  Hanover  street,  Boston, 
was  a  boarding-house  kept  by  a  very  respectable  retired  sea  captain  and  his 
wife,  where  I  could  get  meals  for  12^  cents  and  lodging  for  6^  cents.  I 
slept  in  the  same  bed  with  two  of  the  daughters,  in  the  attic  occupied  by  the 
servants,  and  separated  from  them  only  by  a  curtain.  I  had  some  small 
handbills  printed,  and,  as  I  could  not  pay  for  posting  them,  I  bought  a  paper 
of  tacks  and  put  up  my  bills  myself,  using  a  stone  for  a  hammer.  A  collec- 
tion was  taken  up  at  the  close  of  each  meeting.  I  went  around  with  the  hat 
myself;  there  was  no  one  else  to  do  it.  The  audiences  were  always  large, 
drawn  partly  by  curiosity  to  hear  a  woman,  and  partly  by  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject, and  the  collection  always  came  to  enough  to  pay  the  expenses.  At  first 
I  did  not  take  a  fee  at  the  door,  from  a  feeling  that  everybody  ought  to  hear, 
and  that  some  might  be  kept  out  by  a  fee. 

At  one  time,  in  Salem,  I  had  engaged  a  hall,  when  I  had  only  fifty  cents. 
The  Hutchinsons  were  to  sing  that  night.  They  did  not  want  to  have  their 
audience  divided.  John  Hutchinson  came  and  proposed  that  we  should 
unite.  They  would  sing  and  I  should  lecture,  and  we  could  divide  receipts. 
This  we  did.  Then  Mrs.  C.  I.  H.  Nichols,  of  Brattleboro,  Vt.,  wrote  asking 
me  to  come  there,  and  saying  that  she  would  arrange  the  meeting  and  have 
a  fee  at  the  door.  After  that,  for  several  years,  I  followed  that  plan,  and 
did  not  see  that  the  audiences  were  any  smaller.  I  went  from  city  to  city 
and  from  State  to  State,  carrying  the  good  gospel  of  equal  rights,  and  seek- 
ing to  create  that  wholesome  discontent  among  women,  which  would  make 
them  resent  their  unequal  condition  and  wish  to  escape  from  it.  But  the 
good  sought  to  be  done,  was  hindered  by  the  falsehoods  and  misrepresenta- 
tions of  the  press.  After  one  lecture  in  Indiana,  the  morning  paper  reported 
that  I  had  been  found  in  the  bar-room,  smoking  a  cigar  and  swearing  like  a 
trooper.  Another  closed  a  denunciatory  article  with  the  words  :  "You  she- 
hyena,  don't  you  come  here!"  Another  expressed  its  surprise  to  find  a 
woman 's-rights  speaker  a  modest  woman,  and  said  they  had  always  thought 
of  me  as  of  the  lion  tamer  in  Van  Amburgh's  menagerie. 

My  first  meeting  with  Mrs.  Stanton  was  at  some  convention  held  when 
her  first  daughter  was  a  baby.  I  have  forgotten  the  time  and  place,  but  I 
remember  how  proudly  she  held  up  the  baby,  at  the  house  where  she  was  en- 
tertained, and  said:   "Doesn't  she  look  like  Lucretia  Mott?"     Mrs.  Mott 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  335 

was  our  ideal  woman,  and  one  of  the  most  persuasive  advocates  of  the  cause  ; 
James  Mott  was  always  with  her,  and  the  beautiful  harmony  of  their  lives  was 
the  best  answer  to  the  objection  about  "  discord  in  families."  It  was  at  the 
Syracuse  convention  that  I  first  met  Susan  Anthony ;  and  for  years  after  we 
went  through  many  hard  experiences  together.  From  that  time  we  went  on 
holding  conventions  everywhere,  and  crowds  came  to  hear  us.  I  think  they 
always  met  us  good-naturedly.  Even  the  mobs  offered  no  violence ;  they 
only  tried,  by  howling,  to  prevent  our  being  heard. 

We  began  very  early  to  scatter  literature.  After  the  Worcester  conven- 
tions, I  printed  a  little  book  of  tracts  which,  in  Mrs.  Robinson's  history, 
she  calls  the  Wendell  Phillips  tracts.  I  gathered  together  the  speeches  of 
Wendell  Phillips,  Colonel  Higginson,  Theodore  Parker,  and  Mrs.  C.  I.  H. 
Nichols,  and  the  article  by  Mrs.  John  Stuart  Mill  in  the  Westminster 
Review,  and  put  them  all  into  one  little  book,  and  carried  it  to  my  meet- 
ings. We  took  quantities  of  them  to  Kansas,  when  we  went  there  in  1867, 
to  work  for  a  constitutional  amendment. 

We  demanded  a  greater  variety  of  work  tor  women,  and  better  wages.  It 
was  objected  that  this  would  take  women  out  of  their  sphere.  The  reply  was, 
that  whatever  was  fit  to  be  done  at  all  might  with  propriety  be  done  by  any- 
body who  could  do  it  well ;  that  the  tools  belong  to  those  who  can  use 
them  ;  that  the  existence  of  a  power  presupposes  the  right  to  its  use,  subject 
only  to  the  law  of  benevolence.  We  demanded  better  education  for  women, 
and  that  colleges  should  be  open  to  them.  It  was  objected  that,  if  the  col- 
lege course  was  brought  to  the  level  of  the  comprehension  of  women,  it  would 
"  lower  the  standard  "  of  education.  How  different  has  been  the  actual  result ! 
We  showed  the  atrocity  of  the  old  common  law  as  it  affected  wives,  and 
asked  for  better  legal  conditions. 

But  it  was  the  demand  for  the  ballot  that  met  with  the  fiercest  opposition. 
We  were  told  that  women  would  neglect  their  families,  domestic  comfort 
would  be  at  an  end,  and  quarrels  between  husband  and  wife  would  multiply. 
Last  of  all,  it  was  said  that  if  women  vote,  they  must  fight ;  that  the  ballot  and 
the  bullet  went  together.  Nobody  considered  that  the  woman  who  had  given 
twenty  years  of  her  life  to  bringing  up  her  family  has  done  as  much  for  her 
country  as  the  man  who  may  be  a  soldier.  Objections  were  endless,  but  they 
were  all  answered.  The  self-evident  truths,  against  which  there  can  be  no 
argument,  were  all  on  our  side.  We  knew  that  our  principles  were  right, 
and  that  in  the  long  run  they  were  bound  to  succeed.  We  see  the  proof  of 
it  to-day. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  introduce  to  you  the  one  man  who  has  devoted 
his  life  to  aiding  his  wife  in  her  work  for  the  emancipation  of  woman,  Henry 
B.  Blackwell. 

Mr.  Blackwell.  I  do  not  claim  to  be  a  pioneer  in  this  movement.  I 
deserve  no  credit  for  having  worked  for  it.     All  that  I  am  I  owe  to  women. 


336  International  Council  of  Women. 

For  when  my  father  died,  in  Cincinnati,  fifty  years  ago,  a  stranger  in  a  new 
country,  leaving  his  wife  and  children  almost  destitute,  it  was  my  mother 
and  sisters  who  organized  a  school,  kept  the  family  together,  sent  me  to 
college,  and  gave  the  best  years  of  their  life  to  the  education  of  the  younger 
children.  Should  I  not  be  a  coward  and  a  craven  to  deny  to  such  women 
every  right  I  claim  for  myself?  *  *  *  The  first  organized  demand  of 
American  women  for  legal  and  political  equality  was  made  in  Seneca  Falls, 
N.  Y. ,  in  1848,  but  the  principle  is  as  old  as  history.  It  was  taught  by 
Moses  and  affirmed  by  Plato.  Women  in  all  ages  have  been  rulers  in  em- 
pires, kingdoms,  and  aristocracies,  and  were  made  voters  in  the  very  for- 
mation of  our  government.  *  *  *  The  woman-suffrage  movement  is 
not  new ;  it  is  not  exclusively  a  woman's  movement,  it  is  a  move- 
ment of  women  and  men  for  the  common  interest  of  all.  Let  me  briefly 
name  some  of  the  salient  points  in  the  march  of  social  evolution  in  this 
country,  which  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  has  been  preparing  for  the 
ultimate  enfranchisement  of  woman.  Our  movement  has  its  root  in  Quaker- 
ism. The  disciples  of  George  Fox  and  William  Penn  were  the  original  set- 
tlers of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey.  The  cardinal  principle  of  Puritanism 
was  manhood  suffrage  in  church  and  State,  but  the  cardinal  principle  of 
Quakerism  was  the  equality  of  the  sexes  in  the  home  and  in  the  church. 

On  the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  in  the  city  of  Burlington,  on  the  2d  day  of 
July,  1776,  two  days  before  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
on  the  motion  of  a  Quaker  minister,  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  New 
Jersey,  revising  its  colonial  charter,  changed  the  suffrage  clause  from  "  male 
freeholders  worth  forty  pounds  "  to  "all  inhabitants  worth  forty  pounds," 
thus  extending  the  suffrage  upon  a  property  qualification  to  women  and  free- 
men of  color.  The  election  law  subsequently  framed  used  the  words  "he 
or  she  "  and  "  his  or  her  ballot,"  and  for  thirty-one  years  women  voted  in 
increasing  numbers.  In  1800  the  women  voters  of  New  Jersey  decided  the 
Presidential  election,  giving  the  decisive  electoral  vote  of  the  State  to  John 
Quincy  Adams  over  Thomas  Jefferson.  But  New  Jersey  was  a  slave  State, 
without  free  schools.  The  mass  of  women  had  no  property.  The  old  En- 
glish common  law  gave  the  persons  and  property  of  the  wives  to  the  hus- 
bands. An  immigration  of  illiterate  Swedes  and  Germans  outnumbered  the 
original  Quaker  element.  In  1807  the  Democrats  for  the  first  time  had  a 
majority  of  the  Legislature,  and  enacted  that  henceforth  the  words  "  all  in- 
habitants worth  forty  pounds  "  should  be  construed  to  mean  "  all  white  men 
whose  names  appeared  on  the  last  State  or  county  tax-list."  Thus,  in  vio- 
lation of  constitution  and  usage,  all  women  and  free  colored  men  were  dis- 
franchised, and  all  white  men,  upon  the  payment  of  a  one-dollar  poll-tax, 
were  made  voters.  Any  woman  or  colored  man  who  should  thereafter  offer 
to  vote  was  by  law  made  punishable  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  And  the 
gallant  little  State  which  had  stood  nobly  by  the  side  of  Washington  became, 
and  has  ever  since  remained,  subject  to  political  and  money  monopolies. 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  337 

But  woman-suffrage  sentiment  was  not  confined  to  Quaker  New  Jersey. 
In  Virginia,  more  than  a  century  ago,  the  sister  of  Robert  Henry  Lee,  and 
the  wife  of  John  Adams,  in  Massachusetts,  protested  against  the  unrepre- 
sented taxation  of  women.  In  1787  the  first  constitutional  convention  of 
Massachusetts  had  woman  suffragists  among  its  members.  Three  times  the 
word  "male"  appears  in  the  Massachusetts  constitution;  but  in  each  case  a 
separate  motion  was  made  in  the  convention  to  strike  out  the  word. 

In  1832  the  anti-slavery  movement  brought  woman's  rights  again  to  the 
front.  Abolition  allied  itself  with  the  cause  of  woman.  The  pictorial  head- 
ing of  the  Liberator,  from  its  first  issue,  had  on  it  the  kneeling  figure  of  a 
female  slave,  with  the  legend,  "Am  I  not  a  woman  and  a  sister?  "    *    *    * 

How  nobly  women  responded  to  that  call !  In  that  same  year,  1832,  the 
Boston  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  formed  by  twelve  ladies.  Miss  Sarah 
Southwick,  of  Wellesley  Hills,  Mass.,  who  is  with  us  to-day,  joined  that  so- 
ciety in  1835. 

Miss  Anthony.  Will  Mr.  Blackwell  allow  me  to  present  Miss  Southwick 
to  the  audience  ?  (Miss  Southwick  stepped  to  the  front,  and  was  greeted  with 
great  applause.) 

Mr.  Blackwell.  In  1833  Prudence  Crandall  was  mobbed  in  Canterbury, 
Conn.,  for  establishing  a  school  for  colored  girls.  In  1835,  as  a  boy,  I  was 
enlisted  by  my  mother  and  sisters  in  an  anti-slavery  fair  at  Niblo's  Garden, 
New  York.  A  large  circle  of  ladies,  among  whom  was  Lydia  Maria  Child, 
worked  for  it  as  women  now  work  in  our  New  England  Woman  Suffrage 
Bazaar.  Similar  fairs  were  annually  held  by  women  to  raise  money  for  the 
support  of  the  movement.  In  1835  eight  hundred  New  York  women  peti- 
tioned Congress  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

In  1837  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimke,  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  (Quaker  sisters), 
freed  their  slaves  and  went  to  Boston.  They  claimed  the  right  of  women  to 
take  part  in  politics  as  speakers  and  leaders  of  public  opinion.  Then,  as 
now,  women  were  found  to  oppose  the  rights  of  their  own  sex.  Catharine 
Beecher,  daughter  of  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,a  remonstrant,  published  an  essay 
on  "  Slavery  and  Abolitionism  with  Reference  to  the  Duty  of  American 
Females,"  addressed  to  Angelina  Grimke.  To  this  the  Grimke  sisters  re- 
plied in  a  series  of  thirteen  letters,  which  the  biographers  of  Mr.  Garrison 
pronounce  "the  beginning  of  the  woman's-rights  agitation  in  America." 
The  Massachusetts  General  Association  of  Congregational  Churches  took 
alarm,  and  issued  a  "pastoral  letter,"  which  affirmed  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment teaches  the  subjection  of  woman.     *     *     * 

In  1839  the  right  of  female  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery 
Society  was  questioned.  But  Francis  Jackson  promptly  ruled  that  "  it  is  in 
order  for  women  to  vote,"  and  no  appeal  was  taken.  But  now  a  tempest 
arose  over  "  woman's  rights."  Its  advocacy  was  confined  to  the  "  Garri- 
sonians."     The  "evangelical"  wing  and  the  voting  Abolitionists  opposed 


338  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  public  speaking  of  women.  One  anti-slavery  leader  wrote,  in  1839,  of 
the  Cleveland  convention,  "  Our  meeting  was  a  grand  one.  Four  hundred 
delegates.  No  miserable  woman  question  to  gag  or  perplex  us."  Elizur 
Wright  complained  that  "  everything  has  been  made  to  turn  on  the  woman 
question."  He  urged  a  new  departure  in  which  "  the  confounded  woman 
question  will  be  forgotten,  and  we  shall  take  a  living  position." 

In  May,  1840,  there  was  great  excitement  respecting  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  New  York.  If  possible,  women 
would  be  excluded.  But  the  New  England  Abolitionists  were*  equal  to  the 
emergency.  They  chartered  a  special  steamboat  and  sent  over  four  hundred 
delegates  to  New  York.  The  question  was  on  the  admission  of  Miss  Abby  Kel- 
ly as  a  member  of  the  business  committee.  Out  of  a  total  of  1,008  votes  a 
hundred  majority  voted  in  her  favor.  Tappan,  Phelps,  and  Dennison  at  once 
declined  to  serve.  Tappan  said  :  "To  put  a  woman  on  a  committee  is  'con- 
trary to  the  usages  of  civilized  society.'  "  Revs.  Phelps  and  Dennison  said  : 
"It  is  'contrary  to  the  gospel  and  to  our  consciences.'  "  They  with- 
drew- with  the  minority,  and  formed  a  new  society.  In  1840  Harriet 
Martineau,  Mrs.  Wendell  Phillips,  Mrs.  Chapman,  Mrs.  Child,  Abby  Kelly, 
and  Emily  Winslow  were  made  delegates  to  the  World's  Anti-Slavery  Con- 
vention in  London.  They  were  refused  admittance,  and  Mr.  Garrison  there- 
upon refused  to  act  in  the  convention. 

Between  1840  and  1845  the  anti-slavery  movement  East  and  West  crystal- 
lized into  two  distinct  phases — the  moral  and  the  political.  The  moral,  or 
Garrisonian  wing,  was  conspicuously  in  favor  of  woman's  rights,  and  was 
largely  maintained  by  women :  Abby  Kelly,  Maria  Weston  Chapman,  and 
Lydia  Maria  Child,  in  Massachusetts ;  Elizabeth  Buffum  Chace,  in  Rhode 
Island  ;  Lucretia  Mott  and  Mary  Grew,  in  Pennsylvania;  Sarah  Otis  Ernst 
and  Josephine  Griffing,  in  Ohio.  In  1845  Elizabeth  Blackwell  began  the 
study  of  medicine.  She  had  great  difficulty  in  gaining  admission  to  a  medi- 
cal college.  But  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  opened  its  doors.  I  was  present  at  her 
graduation,  in  1849.  She  was  the  first  woman  who  ever  received  a  medical 
diploma.  In  1843  Lucy  Stone,  a  farmer's  daughter,  with  a  few  hard-earned 
dollars  raised  by  teaching,  studied  at  Oberlin  College  for  four  years,  talking 
woman's  rights,  to  the  consternation  of  the  faculty,  who  regarded  her  with 
mingled  respect  and  terror.  In  1846,  Antoinette  Brown,  going  there  to  study 
theology,  was  warned,  before  crossing  the  Ohio  line,  against  a  girl  there  with 
woman 's-rights  ideas.  The  last  contest  against  the  right  of  woman  to  act 
and  speak  in  politics  was  some  years  later,  in  the  World's  Temperance  Con- 
vention in  New  York,  where  Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  was  silenced  and  ex- 
cluded by  a  mob  of  ministers  led  by  Samuel  Carey,  of  Ohio. 

Previous  to  this,  woman  suffrage  had  begun  to  permeate  the  Whig  party. 
In  1836,  in  Illinois,  young  Abraham  Lincoln  boldly  said:  "I  go  for  all 
sharing  the  privileges  of  the  Government,  who  assist  in  bearing  its  burdens; 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  339 

consequently,  I  go  for  admitting  all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage,  who  pay 
taxes  or  bear  arms,  by  no  means  excluding  females."  The  Presidential 
campaign  of  1840  was  signalized  by  a  general  attendance  of  women  at  the 
Whig  meetings.  Women  took  an  active  part  in  the  songs,  processions,  and 
festivities  which  characterized  the  great  mass  meetings  and  barbecues.  These 
mixed  meetings  of  men  and  women,  full  of  light  and  life  and  mirth  and 
music,  were  in  marked  contrast  with  the  Van  Buren  gatherings  of  men  alone 
—often  dull  and  dreary,  sometimes  coarse  and  profane,  always  lacking  in  the 
ideality  anU  refinement  due  to  the  presence  of  women. 

In  1850  a  second  woman-suffrage  convention  was  held  in  Mt.  Vernon, 
Knox  County,  Ohio,  by  Frances  D.  Gage  and  others.  They  had  not  heard 
of  the  convention  of  1848,  and  supposed  they  were  were  the  first.  In 
1850  and  1 85 1  conventions  were  held  in  Worcester,  Mass.  The  report  of 
the  Worcester  convention  in  the  New  York  Tribune  struck  Mrs.  John  Stuart 
Mill,  and  led  to  her  remarkable  article  in  the  Westminster  Review,  entitled 
•''  The  Enfranchisement  of  Women,"  which  started  the  movement  in  Great 
Britain.  In  1853  a  great  convention,  gotten  up  by  Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Sev- 
erance, was  held  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  at  which  I  made  my  own  first  public 
speech  for  woman  suffrage.     *     *     * 

In  1856  the  Republican  party  was  organized.  Women  were  active  and 
conspicuous  in  its  support.  Its  watch-word  that  year  was  "John  and  Jessie," 
and  the  name  of  Jessie  Benton  Fremont  won  as  many  votes  for  the  cause  as 
did  that  of  "the  path-finder,"  her  illustrious  husbarci.  No  speaker  ever  did 
it  such  effective  service  as  Anna.  E.  Dickinson.  With  the  growth  of  that 
great  party,  woman-suffrage  ideas  continued  to  grow,  until,  in  1872,  the  na- 
tional Republican  platform  contained  this  resolution  : 

"  The  Republican  party  is  mindful  of  its  obligations  to'the  loyaljwomen  of  Amer- 
ica for  their  noble  devotion  to  the  cause  of  freedom  ;  their  admission  to  wider  fields 
of  usefulness  is  viewed  with  satisfaction,  and  the  honest  demands  of  any  class  of 
citizens  for  additional  rights  should  receive  respectful  consideration." 

Upon  that  progressive  platform  the  Republican  party  reached  its  culmina- 
tion, and  polled  its  largest  vote. 

Thus  many  long  years  of  practical  woman  suffrage  in  New  Jersey,  and  of 
steady  growth  of  public  opinion  throughout  the  country,  prepared  the  way  for 
the  Seneca  Falls  Convention  in  1848.  Since  that  time  there  has  been  an  in- 
creasing and  progressive  movement  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  until  to-day  we 
stand  with  our  banners  shining  in  the  light  of  victory.  Full  woman  suffrage 
in  Wyoming  and  Washington  Territories,  municipal  woman  suffrage  in  the 
great  State  of  Kansas,  school  suffrage  in  fourteen  States  and  four  Territories, 
these  are  our  trophies. 

A  revolution  has  been  effected  in  woman's  position  in  law,  in  industry, 
in  the  professions,  in  education,  in  the  home,  and  in  society.  The  new 
parties  of  temperance  and  labor  have  woman -suffrage  platforms,  and  the 
best  elements  of  both  the  old  parties  are  becoming  enlisted  in  our  favor. 


340  International  Council  of  Women. 

Miss  Anthony.  Now  I  shall  introduce  to  you  a  very  young  lady  who  went 
to  Oberlin  College,  and  who  had  a  fancy  or  a  freak  that  she  wanted  to  study 
theology,  and  the  good  professor  told  her  at  last  that  she  might.  She  was 
not  only  the  first  woman  to  take  a  theological  course,  but  the  first  to  be  or- 
dained as  a  minister.  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell  and  Lucy  Stone  were 
classmates,  and,  bound  to  go  together  through  the  world,  they  married 
brothers. 

Mrs.  Blackwell.  The  "embarrassment  of  riches"  of  every  person  who 
began  to  work  over  forty  years  ago,  is  certainly  very  great.  Mrs.  Stanton 
started  the  great  flood  of  conventions,  which  has  culminated  now  in  this  tidal 
wave  ;  but  I  shall  be  forced  to  go  back  and  give  you  something  of  my  own 
record  in  order  to  correct  misapprehensions.  It  has  been  stated  here  by  one 
of  the  speakers  that  I  was  ordained  an  independent  minister.  Independent* 
I  hope,  but  not  in  the  technical  sense ;  and,  to-day,  I  should  like  to  give 
due  credit  to  the  orthodox  Congregationalists,  who  have  helped  me  wonder- 
fully by  always  being  so  generous  as  to  say,  "Act  upon  your  own  responsi- 
bility." For  a  year  previous  to  my  ordination  I  was  a  settled  pastor  of  an 
orthodox  Congregational  church  in  good  and  regular  standing.  The  church 
called  a  council.  The  man  who  preached  the  ordination  sermon  was  a  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist,  Rev.  Luther  Lee,  of  Syracuse.  The  ordination  was  accord- 
ing to  Congregational  usage. 

It  is  true  that  forty  years  ago,  on  my  way  to  Oberlin,  I  was  warned  against 
Lucy  Stone,  because  she  would  lead  away  a  young  woman  by  talking  woman's 
rights,  and  I  found  the  community  literally  humming  over  the  woman  ques- 
tion, not  in  public,  but  in  cliques.  The  discussion  was  going  on  every- 
where.    *     *     * 

There  never  was  at  Oberlin  any  objection  to  a  woman  taking  any  course 
of  study  she  desired.  When  I  went  there,  having  my  own  views  about  the 
desirability  of  prolonged  classical  study,  instead  of  taking  my  place  at  the 
foot  of  one  department,  I  went  toward  the  head  in  another,  and  became  Lucy 
Stone's  classmate.  We  petitioned  our  rhetoric  professor,  James  A.  Tome, 
since  he  required  us  to  listen  to  the  orations  and  discussions  of  the  young  men 
of  our  class,  to  allow  us  to  take  part  also.  The  professor  did  appoint  us  to  take 
part  in  a  discussion  in  the  presence  of  the  class,  and  we  did  it  to  the  best  of 
our  ability.  Then  the  faculty  intervened.  There  were  no  more  semi-public 
discussions  on  the  part  of  young  women.  We  already  had  an  association 
for  discussion  and  improvement.  We  didn't  call  it  a  woman's  club,  but  we 
met  in  those  years,  i846-'47,  and  our  purposes  were  exactly  what  the  pur- 
poses of  the  women  who  form  clubs  to-day  are. 

We  were  often  obliged  to  bring  our  thoughts  before  the  class,  because  there 
was  no  other  method  of  making  known  our  opinions.  Of  course,  St.  Paul 
in  his  teaching  to  the  Corinthians  and  to  Timothy  blocked  the  way,  so  we 
prepared  essays  to  read,  giving  an  exegesis  of  St.  Paul's  texts,  and  with  the 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  341 

audacity  of  our  convictions  we  re-interpreted  St.  Paul.  Finally  this  came 
to  the  ears  of  President  Mahan,  who  never  attempted  to  say  that  any  girl 
might  not  do  what  she  pleased ;  he  was  nobly  liberal  in  all  ways.  He  sent 
for  the  writer  and  for  her  paper  ;  he  went  over  it  carefully,  and  some  months 
later  he  decided  that  it  ought  to  have  a  hearing.  He  and  Professor  Charles 
J.  Finney  were  editors  of  the  Oberlin  Quarterly  Review,  and  he  was  gen- 
erous enough  to  say  that  this  article  should  have  a  place  there.  For  it  had 
won  position  and  ought  to  be  brought  before  the  public.  The  curious  part 
of  this  was  that  in  the  same  Oberlin  Quarterly  Revieiv  is  an  article  by  Presi- 
dent Fairchild,  then  Professor  Fairchild,  taking  a  conservative  view  of  the 
woman  question.  And  President  Fairchild,  whose  daughter  is  here  to-day, 
read  over  the  proofs  of  both  articles,  diametrically  opposed  in  sentiment, 
and  generously  came  to  the  boarding-hall  and  made  verbal  criticisms.  If 
you  take  these  facts  you  will  understand  that  Oberlin  was  intensely  com- 
mitted to  free  speech. 

But  it  made  its  point  so  nicely  that  the  reason  Lucy  Stone  couldn't  give 
her  graduating  essay  was  that  men  sat  upon  the  platform  and  young  men 
came  up  to  read  their  essays,  because  it  was  men's  day  ;  but  the  day  before, 
we  others,  not  receiving  the  degree  of  the  classical  department,  when  the 
lady  board  sat  upon  the  platform  and  when  the  white  haired  President  Mahan 
was  the  only  professor  anywhere  around,  came  forward  and  read  our  own 
essays  from  the  same  place  and  to  almost  the  identical  audience,  which  the 
young  men  the  next  day  doubtless  more  brilliantly  enlightened.  This  was 
Oberlin's  consistency. 

When  we  began  to  study  theology,  Mrs.  Lettie  Smith  Holmes  and  her  hus- 
band and  myself  were  among  the  students ;  we  had  three  classes  in  one — 
that  is,  the  whole  theological  department  had  its  literary  exercises  together, 
ind,  under  the  constitution,  it  required  each  member  to  present  an  essay,  an 
>ration,  discussion,  etc.     The  young  men  of  that  committee  appointed  their 
jirl  classmate  to  take  part  in  thediscussion.     Professor  Morgan  was  one  ot  the 
most  outspoken  opponents  of  woman's  doing  anything  in  public.     When  the 
appointment  was  read  off,  the  professor,  coming  to  the  fatal  name,  looked 
ltterly  blank.     I  think  for  a  moment  I  hardly  breathed  ;  then   he  quietly 
read  on  the  appointments  and  asked  the  young  men   to   remain  after  the 
exercises.      1  do  not  tell  the  secrets  of  learned  college  halls,  but  the  young 
len  pointed  out  that  their  constitution  required  the   young  women  to  take 
jart  in  all  the  exercises,  and  they  declined  to  amend  that  constitution.    And 
this  time  the  faculty  declined  to  intervene.     Then  the  professor,  when  the 
ime  for  debate  came,  said,  "  I  can  not  help  myself;  if  I  could  stop  you  I 
would ;  but,  as  I  can  not,  I  will  do  the  best  I  can  to  give  you  instruction  ; 
act  upon  your  own  responsibility,"  and  she  did.     They  kept  that  contract 
faithfully  for  three  years. 

The  World's   Temperance    Convention    in    1853  was   the  first    that  ac- 


342  International  Council  of  Women. 

cepted  a  woman  delegate.  I  came  from  two  societies,  with  two  deacons 
of  my  church,  for  at  that  time  I  was  a  pastor.  We  had  decided  that  I 
should  simply  rise,  say  that  I  was  a  delegate,  thank  them  for  courteously 
receiving  me,  and  then  quietly  withdraw  and  go  to  one  of  our  con- 
ventions, which  was  being  held  at  New  York  city  at  the  same  time. 
Wendell  Phillips  and  Mrs.  Severance  were  with  me,  and  we  three  were 
the  only  persons  who  came  to  present  this  delegate's  credentials.  But 
the  moment  I  attempted  to  thank  them,  the  whole  house  seemed  to 
rise  en  masse,  and  such  a  hubbub,  such  a  confusion,  such  a  determination 
not  to  hear  a  woman's  voice  in  a  temperance  convention  !  It  was  some- 
thing to  remember  to  one's  dying  day  !  We  quietly  waited  and  the  whole 
day  passed  over.  Nothing  could  be  done;  it  was  all  discussing  "  Shall  the 
woman  speak?"  I  was  a  delegate,  was  accepted,  and  was  admitted. 
"  Shall  she  speak?"  and  the  answer  was  every  time  "  No."  We  adjourned, 
and  the  next  day  came  together  again,  and  other  delegates  were  there  to 
do  what  they  could,  and  for  five  hours  I  stood,  only  wishing  to  talk  one 
minute  perhaps,  but  for  five  hours  I  stood  there,  feeling  that  I  had  a  right  to 
free  speech  as  a  delegate.  Then  they  adjourned  the  convention  and  ruled 
out  all  except  speakers  invited.  Indeed,  they  had  done  that  once  before. 
They  had  decided  that  no  one  should  speak  in  the  convention  unless 
invited  to  the  platform,  but  Neal  Dow  was  generous,  and  when  he  saw  me, 
a  woman,  he  invited  me  to  the  platform,  and  so  I  stood  there  for  five  hours. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  a  man  who, 
though  he  didn't  stand  by  Mrs.  Stanton's  resolution  in  1848,  because  he 
wasn't  there,  did  stand  by  her  at  a  later  day,  when  the  cry  was,  "This  is 
the  negro's  hour."  When  Mrs.  Stanton  dared  to  say,  "  I  believe  in  suffrage 
for  all  men  and  all  women ;  still,  if  the  Republican  party  will  insist  upon 
taking  a  wheelbarrowful  at  a  time  into  the  body  politic,  I  insist  that  it  is 
more  important  for  this  Government  to  have  a  wheelbarrow-load  of  intelli- 
gent, native-born,  educated,  tax-paying  women  than  of  ignorant  plantation 
men."  At  the  close  of  the  war  we  had  a  fearful  word  battle  as  to  who  should 
come  into  the  kingdom  of  politics  first — black  men,  or  all  the  disfranchised 
men  and  women,  black  and  white.  During  those  discussions  there  was  one 
man  who  stood  upon  the  platform  here  in  Washington,  in  1869,  and  said  : 
"If  need  be,  I  would  prefer  to  bide  my  time  for  twenty  years  before  I  shall 
deposit  a  ballot,  if  at  that  time  I  maybe  allowed  to  take  my  wife  and  daugh- 
ter with  me  to  the  ballot-box."  That  man  was  Robert  Purvis,  of  Phila- 
delphia. 

Mr.  Purvis.  I  am  very  sure  that  our  Chairman  did  not  intend  to  em- 
barrass me  by  a  reference  to  a  matter  which,  it  seems  to  me,  does  not  merit  so 
much  compliment  as  she  has  given.  It  was  the  most  natural  thing  for  me  to 
do,  and  the  only  matter  of  surprise  is  that  any  one  in  the  same  circumstances 
would  not  have  been  equally  ready  to  do  it.     I  value  the  honor  of  being 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  343 

ranked  as  a  pioneer  in  this  cause,  although  I  can  not  claim,  as  my  friend 
Douglass  can,  to  have  been  a  member  of  the  first  Woman's  Rights  Conven- 
tion at  Seneca  Falls ;  but  I  owe  it  to  myself  to  say  that  anterior,  some  few 
years  at  least,  to  the  matter  to  which  Mrs.  Blackwell  has  referred  in  the  test 
vote  touching  the  appointment  of  Abby  Kelly,  subsequently  Abby  Foster, 
I  stand  rightly  upon  the  record  in  that  vote  which  I  gave  that  time.  I  had 
before  committed  myself  to  the  belief  that  whatever  was  morally  right  for 
a  man,  was  equally  so  for  a  woman. 

This  cause,  Miss  President,  is  in  many  respects  analogous  to  that  which 
you  and  our  esteemed  President,  Mrs.  Stanton,  and  our  friend,  Lucy  Stone, 
and  our  beloved  friend,  Mary  Grew,  whom  I  am  glad  to  see  here  this  morn- 
ing, waged  against  the  slave  power  in  our  land.  You  know  how  we  boasted 
then  and  we  boast  now,  but  with  a  little  more  consistency,  that  our  land  is 
the  freest  land  upon  the  face  of  the  globe.  We  exultingly  pointed  to  the 
truth,  as  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  all  persons  were  born  free 
and  equal,  and  were  endowed  with  an  inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  hapiness,  and  yet  at  that  very  time  we  held  one-sixth  portion 
of  the  people  of  this  country  as  chattels,  slaves,  to  be  bought  and  sold,  and 
to  be  branded  and  whipped,  and  killed  all  the  day  long.  With  sublime 
impudence  we  boasted  that  this  was  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 
brave.     We  were,  in  truth,  a  country 

"  Where  the  fustian  banner  proudly  waves 
In  splendid  mockery  o'er  a  land  of  slaves." 

Turn  from  this  inconsistency  to  another.  We  yet  hold  and  declare  as  a 
parallel  and  a  paradox,  that  the  right  of  voting  and  representation  are  recip- 
rocal ;  that  all  governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed ;  and,  in  face  of  this,  in  the  presence  of  women  who  constitute 
one-half  of  this  population,  we  ignore  the  application  of  what  we  consider 
to  be  truths. 

It  was  not  my  purpose,  however,  to  occupy  my  moments  with  words  of 
this  kind,  but  it  was,  simply,  Miss  Chairman,  to  present  to  you  and  your 
coadjutors  my  deepest,  heartiest,  warmest  congratulations  at  the  marvelous 
success  that  has  followed  your  labors — a  success  that  portends,  in  the  near 
future,  your  emancipation. 

You  recollect  a  few  years  ago  a  Scotch  poet  named  Mackay,  writing  in  the 
interests  of  the  toilers  of  Europe,  and  in  Great  Britain,  particularly, 
wrote  "There's  a  good  time  coming,  boys,  a  good  time  coming;  wait 
a  little  longer."  Upon  one  occasion,  when  they  were  singing  this  song, 
a  wearied  toiler,  whose  aching  heart  was  longing  for  the  breaking  of  the 
day  when  the  heavy  burden  upon  him  might  be  lifted,  rose  in  his  place,  and 
with  honest  simplicity,  inquired  of  the  singer  whether  he  could  name  the  day. 
I  possess  no  gift  of  prophecy  :  I  can  not  penetrate  the  vista  of  the  future, 
but  I  believe  I  can  name  the  day  of  "the  good  time  coming."  I  see  it,  I 
feel  it.     Our  good  President  told  us  that  the  signs  of  the  times  indicated 


344  International  Council  of  Women. 

this.  It  is  so.  It  comes  to  us  in  its  animating  and  inspiring  force.  It  ena- 
bles us  to  see  throughout  the  world,  that  despotism  is  becoming,  to  use  a  mild 
word,  unfashionable ;  that  scepters  are  being  respected  only  as  they  rule  in 
righteousness,  to  effect  purposes  of  mercy  and  benevolence.  That  the  thrones 
of  all  despots,  great  or  small,  wherever  found,  whether  as  rulers  over  king- 
doms or  lesser  ones  in  our  domestic  homes,  rest  upon  shallow,  sandy,  uncer- 
tain foundations;  that  the  genius  of  liberty  and  freedom  is  moving  on — 
moving  on — demanding  in  tones  not  to  be  misunderstood,  demanding  in  the 
name  of  justice  and  outraged  humanity,  a  practical  recognition  of  the  doc- 
trine of  equality  of  rights  for  all,  without  regard  to  sex,  color,  race,  or  con- 
dition. 

"  There's  a  voice  on  evers*  wave, 

A  sound  on  every  sea, 
The  watch-word  of  the  brave, 

The  anthem  of  the  free. 
From  steep  to  steep  it  rings, 

Through  Europe's  many  climes  ; 
A  knell  to  despot  kings, 

A  sentence  on  their  crimes. 

From  every  giant  hill, 

Companion  of  the  cloud. 
The  startled  echo  leaps, 

To  give  it  hack  aloud. 

Where'er  a  wind  is  rushing, 

Where'er  a  stream  is  gushing, 
The  swelling  notes  are  heard 

Of  man  to  freeman  calling, 

Of  broken  fetters  falling,  , 

And  like  the  carol  of  a  cageless  bird, 
The  bursting  shout  is  freedom's  rallying  word." 

And  now,  Miss  Chairman,  in  the  hope  that  I  shall  join  with  you  in  heart 
and  song  in  the  jubilee  that  is  coming,  I  shall  then,  as  Simeon  of  old,  be 
ready  to  say  :   "  Now,  Lord,  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace." 

Miss  Anthony.  As  we  have  no  pioneer  present  from  the  Old  World, 
from  England,  where  Mrs.  Peter  A.  Taylor  is  called  the  mother  of  the 
Woman's  Suffrage  movement;  Mrs.  Priscilla  Bright  McClaren,  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth Pease  Nichol,  Eliza  Wigham — as  we  have  none  of  the  older  ones 
present,  we  deem  it  fitting  that  we  shall  have  a  song  from  one  of  the  children 
of  that  movement,  Mrs.  Ormiston  Chant. 

Mrs.  Chant  then  rendered,  with  exquisite  feeling,  "The  Lost 
Chord." 

Miss  Anthony.  Now  I  will  present  to  vou  Miss  Mary  Grew,  of  Philadel- 
phia, who  was  one  of  the  women  at  the  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention, 
in  London,  in  1840,  and  who  has  stood  in  Philadelphia  at  the  very  front, 
through  all  the  anti-slavery  struggle  and  up  to  this  hour,  of  the  Woman 
Suffrage  movement. 

Miss  Grew.  When  the  great  moral  revolution,  to  which  my  life  was  chiefly 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  345 

given,  came  to  an  end  I  sang  my  nunc  dimittis.  A  quarter  of  a  century  has 
passed  away,  and  again  ''mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of 
the  Lord."  You  ha^e  heard  of  that  World's  Convention  in  London,  from 
which  half  the  world  was  excluded,  where  a  vow  was  registered  and  a  purpose 
formed  from  which  has  resulted,  among  many  other  things,  this  Interna- 
tional Council  of  Women,  occupying  a  week  in  the  capital  of  the  United 
States.  Of  that  band  of  women  who  sat  silent  there  only  three  are  here  to- 
day. Most  of  them  have  finished  their  course,  having  kept  their  faith  and 
departed  hence. 

But  those  who  can  look  back  so  far  across  the  years  nearly  rounding  half 
a  century,  and  compare  the  condition  of  woman  then  with  her  position 
to-day,  feel  the  contrast  so  great,  so  wonderful,  that  we  instinctively  exclaim, 
"What  hath  God  wrought  !  "  Then  custom  and  religion — no,  not  religion, 
but  the  church — taught  man  to  hold  woman  as  his  plaything,  pet,  drudge,  or 
slave,  and  when  she  asked  for  rights  he  said,  "You  have  my  glory,"  and 
wondered  that  she  was  not  content  to  stand  in  that  reflected  light.  To-day 
she  stands  up  a  human  being,  endowed  with  all  the  faculties  of  her  brother 
man,  demanding  her  rights.  To-day  legislators  are  making  laws  at  her  bid- 
ding. Yes,  little  by  little,  step  by  step,  they  are  meting  out  justice  to 
woman,  protecting  her  rights  of  property  and  of  person  in  marriage,  giving 
her  gradually  more  of  these  rights,  some  from  a  sense  of  justice,  some, 
doubtless,  from  a  desire  to  quiet  her  demands  and  say,  "  Thus  far  we 
will  go  and  no  farther  ;  content  yourselves  with  that."  Colleges 
are  open  to  her.  She  is  reaching  into  avenues  of  industry  which  were 
closed  against  her ;  she  is  putting  forth  her  hand  to  take  the  tools 
she  can  use,  and  generally  she  does  take  them.  She  fills  and  adorns 
to-day  the  profession  of  medicine.  She  pleads  in  our  courts,  even  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  You  have  heard  how  she  has  unlocked 
the  door  of  the  pulpit  and  stands  there  to-day,  ordained  by  the  laying  on  of 
hands,  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Him,  in  whose  sight  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  bond  nor  free,  male  nor  female,  but  all  are  one  in  Him. 

I  rejoice  to-day  that  the  pioneer  who  first  opened  the  door  of  the  American 
pulpit  is  here,  having  borne  her  cross,  if  cross  it  were,  and  wearing  her  crown 
now ;  sitting  with  us,  surrounded  by  her  sisters  who  have  followed  in  her 
steps.  There  was  another  pioneer  who  trod  the  thorny  path,  who  smoothed 
the  way  into  the  medical  profession  for  those  who  should  come  after  her. 
We  do  not  forget  her  name,  though  she  is  not  with  us  to-day,  nor  do  we 
forget  the  sainted  ones  who,  having  done  well  and  wisely,  having  fought  out 
their  battles  unto  their  death,  have  gone  hence,  and  who,  perchance,  are 
mingling  their  sympathies  with  us  now. 

It  is  meet,  it  is  fitting  that  we  come  here  and   stand  awhile  on  this  mount 
of  retrospection  and  prospective  vision,  and  recount  all  the  steps  of  the  way 
as  far  as  we  can  recount  them,  and  while  we  rejoice  and   take  courage  in 
23 


346  International  Council  of  Women. 

thinking  over  the  wonderful  things  which  have  been  done  in  the  name  of 
justice,  and  are  full  of  hope,  full  of  faith,  we  do  not  forget  that  the  work  is 
not  done  ;  that  all  is  not  won  ;  that  there  is  hard  work  to  be  done,  battles  to 
be  fought,  temporary  defeats  to  be  sustained,  victories  to  be  won,  and  we  do 
not  stand  as  one  who  puts  off  the  harness.  We  have  learned  much  in  the 
past.  •  We  have  learned  the  value  of  weapons.  We  have  learned  who  are  our 
antagonists.  We  have  learned  what  is  the  great  opponent  that  we  have  to 
meet — greater,  perhaps,  than  all  others  combined — the  great  liquor  league  of 
this  nation,  strong  in  numbers,  strong  in  wealth,  not  very  strong  in  moral 
power,  but  steadfast,  immovable,  always  abounding  in  works  of  evil.  In- 
stinctively, intuitively  it  is  the  foe  of  this  cause,  for  well  it  knows  that  its 
power  will  be  broken  when  woman  comes  into  her  kingdom.  In  the  pres- 
ence of  such  a  foe  we  might  quail  did  we  not  know  that  the  principle  of 
immortal  life  is  in  truth  and  justice,  and  that  the  Lord  God  omnipotent 
reigneth,  a  fact  which  our  opponents  seem  sometimes  to  forget.  But  not 
because  woman  will  do  good  work  in  lifting  up  the  debased  ;  not  because 
she  will  strike  down  with  one  hand  this  great  foe  to  human  progress ;  not 
because  she  will  vote  in  this  way  or  another,  do  I  demand  the  ballot  chiefly ; 
I  demand  it  on  the  ground  of  absolute  justice — I  demand  it  on  the  ground 
of  the  foundation  principle  of  this  American  Government,  which  takes  a  lie 
in  its  mouth  in  offering  to  me,  as  it  does,  those  principles  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  while  it  withholds  from  me  and  my  sisters,  the  ballot. 

We  are  going  on  to  victory.  In  a  dozen  of  States  women  wield  the  bal- 
lot, very  much  restricted,  to  be  sure.  In  two  Territories  they  stand  side  by 
side  with  their  brothers.  Are  not  these  signs  of  the  times  sufficient  to  en- 
courage us?  But  most  of  all  we  are  encouraged  because  we  know  that  God 
is  on  our  side  ;  that  any  cause  based  upon  righteousness  can  never  fail, 
although  it  may  seem  to.  Some  of  us  very  aged  ones,  may  not  live  to  see 
the  completion  of  this  work ;  may  not  join  in  the  jubilee  which  shall  cele- 
brate the  emancipation  of  woman.  It  may  be  beyond  the  time  when  we 
shall  leave  this  world,  but  if  so  we  shall  die  full  of  faith  and  sure  of  its  per- 
fect completion  ;  shall  die  leaving  it  confidently  and  in  hope,  to  the  younger 
workers  who  are  rallying  around  our  banner  and  crowding  our  meeting ; 
who  are  registering  themselves  as  friends  of  equality  and  justice  for  man  and 
woman. 

We  shall  bequeath  it  to  you,  young  friends  ;  to  you  gathered  here,  with 
the  fresh  chrism  of  consecration  on  your  brows  ;  bequeath  it  to  you  with  all 
its  glorious  opportunities,  its  solemn  responsibilities,  and  with  our  parting 
word,  "  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death  or  victory." 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  present  to  you  Mrs.  Matilda  Josyln  Gage,  who, 
though  not  at  the  convention  of  1848,  in  person,  was  there  in  spirit.  She 
attended  the  Syracuse  convention  in  1852,  at  which  she  and  I  first  met  the 
leaders  of  the  Woman's  Rights  movement.     I  never  saw  Lucretia  Mott  or 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  347 

Lucy  Stone,  or  any  of  the  earlier  champions  of  the  cause,  except  Mrs.  Stan- 
ton and  Abby  Kelly,  until  that  day. 

Mrs.  Gage.  I  have  frequently  been  asked  what  first  turned  my  thoughts 
towards  woman's  rights.  I  think  1  was  born  with  a  hatred  of  oppression, 
and,  too,  in  my  father's  house,  I  was  trained  in  the  anti-slavery  ranks,  for  it 
was  one  of  the  stations  on  the  underground  railway,  and  a  home  of  anti- 
slavery  speakers.  Well  I  remember  the  wonder  with  which,  when  a  young 
girl,  I  looked  upon  Abby  Kelly,  when  she  spoke  of  the  wrongs  of  black 
women  and  black  men.  Then  I  remember,  before  the  Round  House  in 
my  city  of  Syracuse  was  finished,  a  large  and  enthusiastic  anti-slavery  con- 
vention was  held  there,  attended  by  thousands  of  people  who  all  joined  in  sing- 
ing William  Lloyd  Garrison's  song,  "  I'm  an  Abolitionist  and  glory  in  the 
Name,"  and  as  they  rang  out  that  glorious  defiance  against  wrong,  it  thrilled 
my  very  heart,  and  I  feel  it  echoing  to  this  day. 

I  am  indebted  to  my  father  for  something  better  than  a  collegiate  educa- 
tion.    He  taught  me  to  think  for  myself,  and  not  to  accept  the  word  of  any 
man,  or  society,  or  human  being,  but  to  fully  examine  for  myself.     My  father 
was  a  physician,  training  me  himself,  giving  me  lessons  in    physiology  and 
natomy,  and  while  I  was  a  young  girl  he  spoke  of  my  entering  Geneva 
Medical  College,  whose  president  was  his  old  professor,  and  studying  for  a 
physician,  but  that  was  not  to  be.     I  had  been  married  quite  a  number  of 
years  when  Elizabeth  Blackwell  was  graduated   from  that  institution,  which 
opened  its  doors  to  admit  her,  closing  them,  upon  her  graduation,  to  women, 
until  since  its  union  with  the  Syracuse  University.     But  with  regard    to 
woman's  rights  proper,  when  I  saw  the  reports  of  the  first  convention  in  the 
New  York  Tribune,  I  knew  my  place ;  and  when  I  read  the  notice  of  a  con- 
vention to  be  held  in  Syracuse,  in  1852,  I  at  once  decided  to  publicly  join 
the  ranks  of  those  who  spoke  against  wrong.     But  I  was  entirely  ignorant  of 
all  parliamentary  rule,  or  what  was  necessary  to  be  done.     I  prepared  my 
speech,  and,  going  to  the  convention,  sat  near  the  front,  and  with  a  palpi- 
tating heart  waited  until  I  obtained  courage  to  go  upon  the  platform,  prob- 
ably to  the   interference  of  arrangements,  for  I  knew  nothing  about   the 
proper  course  for  me  to  take.     But  I  was  so  sweetly  welcomed  by  the  sainted 
Lucretia  Mott,  who  gave  me  a  place,  and,  when    I   had  finished  speaking, 
referred  so  pleasantly  to  what  I  had  said,  and  to  her  my  heart  turns  always 
with  truest  affection.     Soon  after  the  close  of  the  convention,  almost  im- 
mediately afterwards,  it  was  criticised  from  the  pulpit  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ash- 
ley, of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  Rev.  Mr.  Sunderland,  now  of  this  city, 
but  then  established  at  Syracuse.     With  the  latter  gentleman  I  carried  on  a 
long  newspaper  controversy.     As  Miss  Grew  has  truly  said,  it  is  not  religion 
that  has  opposed  woman  suffrage,  because  true  religion  believes  in   undoing 
the  heavy  burdens  and  letting  the  oppressed  go  free.     But  from  the  church 
and  from  theology  this  reform  has  met  opposition  at  every  step. 


348  International  Council  of  Women. 

Miss  Anthony.  We  have  with  us  this  morning  the  man  who  was  pioneer 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  in  presenting  a  proposition  for  an  amend- 
ment to  the  national  Constitution  for  the  protection  of  women  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  citizen's  right  to  vote,  and  that  is  the  Hon.  Samuel  C.  Pome- 
roy,  now  of  this  city,  then  of  Kansas. 

Mr.  Pomeroy.  I  can  hardly  claim  to  be  a  pioneer,  although,  if  Miss  An- 
thony will  not  be  offended,  I  will  say  that  in  the  early  part  of  this  century* 
I  was  invited,  one  rainy  evening,  to  the  vestry  of  a  church  to  hear  a  speech 
upon  woman  suffrage.  Up  to  that  period  I  had  paid  no  particular  atten- 
tion to  it.  I  heard  Susan  B.  Anthony,  and  at  the  close  of  the  meeting  I  told 
her,  that  I  believed  she  was  right,  and,  God  being  my  witness,  I  have  not 
deviated  from  that  position  since. 

I  want  to  pay  a  tribute,  at  the  beginning,  to  her  out  of  respect  to  whom  we 
bowed  our  heads  in  silence.  In  1856,  when  I  had  escaped  prison  and 
reached  Chicago  and  had  spoken  to  the  assemblies  there  and  in  Buffalo  and 
Philadelphia,  Mrs.  Lucretia  Mott  sent  her  card  to  have  me  come  and  dine 
with  her.  At  the  table  were  her  sons-in-law  and  some  neighbors,  and  she 
asked  me  to  tell  our  story — the  story  of  Kansas.  Late  in  the  evening,  when 
I  left,  she  took  me  by  the  hand  and  said:  "Go  back,  be  faithful,  and  you 
shall  triumph."  And  those  words  have  been  a  prophecy  and  inspiration  to 
me  all  my  life. 

As  this  Convention  closes,  in  coming  down  from  those  heights  to  your 
various  fields  of  labor  and  effort,  I  should  like  to  inquire,  What  is  the  future  of 
your  effort  ?  I  have  listened  here  day  after  day  to  wonderful  congratula- 
tions. But  it  occurs  to  me  that  you  are  not  going  to  victory  on  these 
"  flowery  beds  of  ease."  Something  is  yet  to  be  done.  I  remember  living 
in  a  town  where  a  mother  turned  her  little  boy  out,  after  putting  pantaloons 
on  him  for  the  first  time,  and  told  him  not  to  go  into  the  water  and  mud 
and  dirt ;  but  the  little  boy  came  back  shortly,  having  run  through  every 
mud-puddle  in  the  neighborhood,  and  she  said  :  "Johnny,  Johnny,  what 
have  you  to  say  for  yourself?  "  and  he  answered :  "  Mother,  there  is  nothing  to 
say.  It  is  time  something  was  did."  We  have  had  a  season  of  saying. 
What  have  we  to  do  ?  I  am  told  that  we  must  have  a  grand  amendment  to  the 
American  Constitution.  That  is  good.  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  venerable 
document  which  I  had  the  honor  to  present  to  the  Senate  on  the  7th  day  of 
December,  1868.     It  reads: 

Mr.  Pomeroy  asked,  and  by  unanimous  consent  obtained,  leave  to  bring  in  the 
following  resolution,  wbich  was  read  twice  and  ordered  to  be  printed:  Joint  resolu- 
tion proposing  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Be  it 
resolved  by  tbe  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  tbe  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica in  Congress  assembled  (two-thirds  concurring),  that  tbe  following  article  be 
submitted  to  tbe  legislatures  of  tbe  several  States,  and  when  adopted  by  three- 
f  ourths  of  tbe  States,  shall  become  a  part  of  tbe  Constitution  of  tbe  United  States, 
and  shall  be  known  as  the  Fifteenth  Amendment. 

♦August,  1865,  in  the  little  Congregational  church  in  Atchison,  Kansas. 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  349 

Article  15.  The  basis  of  suffrage  in  the  United  States  shall  be  that  of  citizenship, 
and  all  native  or  naturalized  citizens  shall  enjoy  equal  rights  and  privileges  in  the 
elective  franchise. 

I  thought  then  and  I  think  now  that  citizenship  is  the  only  proper  basis  of 
suffrage  in  this  country.  That  evening,  after  1  proposed  this  resolution,  Mr* 
Charles  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  called  on  me  and  said  he  did  not  think  the 
proposed  amendment  was  necessary.  Why  ?  We  had  just  got  through  with  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment ;  we  were  then  living  in  a  period  of  amendments.  We 
had  just  completed  the  Thirteenth,  which  was  the  first  amendment  of  our  day 
and  generation.  The  Twelfth  Amendment  was  adopted  in  1802,  and  we  had 
no  more  until  1865.  I  hold  in  my  hand  that  Thirteenth.  It  was  sent 
to  the  States  February  1,  1865;  it  was  ratified  December  16,  1865,  and 
that  amendment  was  that  "  there  should  be  no  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime. ' ' 
Four  States  never  adopted  it ;  but  we  had  three-fourths  of  all  the  States  for 
it.  The  Fourteenth  Amendment  is  the  one  that  Mr.  Sumner  said  superseded 
and  made  a  Fifteenth  Amendment,  which  I  had  the  honor  to  introduce* 
unnecessary,  and  why?  Because  it  starts  out  by  saying  that  "All  persons 
born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof 
shall  be  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  States  wherein  they  reside." 
And  then  comes  the  important  point — that  "no  State  shall  make  or  enforce 
any  law  abridging  the  rights  of  a  citizen."  Mr.  Sumner  thought  we  did  not 
need  a  special  amendment  to  say  the  right  to  vote  shall  be  confined  to  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States,  embracing  all  persons,  native  and  adopted,  be- 
cause the  constitutional  amendment  which  we  had  just  adopted,  said  that  no 
State  should  make  or  enforce  any  law  abridging  the  rights  of  a  citizen.  I 
thought,  then,  as  I  think  to-day,  that  if  Congress  would  pass  a  law  that  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  of  a  prescribed  age,  whether  native  or  adopted,  should 
have  equal  right  to  the  ballot-box,  there  is  not  a  court  or  judge,  worthy  of 
the  ermine,  who  would  decide  against  it.  How  much  easier  it  is  to  get  an 
act  of  Congress  passed,  by  a  majority,  signed  by  the  President,  than  it  is  to 
get  two-thirds  of  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  three-fourths  of  all  the  States 
to  ratify  an  amendment  !     *     *     * 

This  country  has  no  precedent  in  history  for  its  existence.  America  holds 
the  future,  and  holds  it  because  it  is  working  out  a  pathway  of  its  own. 
There  is  nothing  like  our  Government  in  human  history.  It  is  a  Govern- 
ment of  the  people ;  it  is  a  conglomeration  of  all  the  nations ;  it  is  like  the 
English  language,  made  up  of  every  other  language — a  nation  made  up  of 
all  nations.  We  are  exemplifying  the  doctrine  that  God  hath  made  of  one 
blood  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  He  has  congregated  them  here  for 
the  development  of  the  grandest  principles  of  human  government. 

I  want  to  say,  in  closing,  that  this  movement  for  equal  suffrage  that  began 
forty  years  ago ;  and  that  reminds  me  that  I  was  in  a  convention  with  Mr. 
Douglass  in  1840,  in  which  Alvin  Stewart.  Beriah  Green,  Gerrit  Smith  and  a 


350  International  Council  of  Women. 

host  of  men  and  women  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy,  and  I  remember 
Gerrit  Smith  saying,  at  the  close  of  a  remarkable  speech  :  "It  will  be  glory 
enough  for  a  man  to  say  forty  years  hence,  that  he  was  right  in  1840." 
Those  words  have  come  echoing  down  the  years,  and  I  want  to  say  to  these 
ladies  and  gentlemen  here  to-day  who  were  right  forty  years  ago  :  It  is 
glory  enough  now  to  be  here  and  join  in  these  congratulations  over  the  suc- 
cess of  this  movement  for  the  education  of  all  people.  The  education  at  the 
ballot-box  is  the  Christ  of  this  period.  It  shall  be  the  Savior  of  the  world. 
Mrs.  Stanton.  Mr.  Pomeroy  asks  us  what  we  propose  to  do  after  the 
adjournment  of  this  grand  Convention.  The  great  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to 
get  the  women  ready  to  vote,  for  wherever  we  go,  the  first  objection  that 
meets  us  is  that  the  women  do  not  want  to  vote.  We  have  a  large  number 
of  women  assembled  here  to-day,  and  I  would  like  to  get  their  testimony  by 
a  rising  vote. 

The  audience  rose  en  masse. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Pomeroy's  address,  Mrs  May  Wright. 
Sewall  stepped  forward,  quickly  followed  by  Harriette  Shattuck, 
Laura  M. "Johns,  Rev.  Annie  Shaw,  Clara  B.  Colby,  and  Rachel 
G.  Foster,  each  bearing  a  basket  of  choice  flowers. 

Mrs.  Sewall.  Madam  President,  even  on  Pioneers'  Day,  young  people 
have  some  rights  which  older  people  are  bound  to  respect.  The  one  right 
we  claim  to-day,  is  that  of  expressing  our  gratitude.  For  what  are  we 
grateful  ?  First,  for  the  enlarged  self-respect  made  possible  to  the  young 
women  of  this  country,  by  the  work  of  the  women  who  have  preceded  us. 
I  suppose  the  youngest  of  this  group  (no  member  of  whom  professes  to  be 
old)  has,  in  her  childhood,  heard  that  a  baby  girl  born  to  a  family  increased 
its  wealth^by  $500,  while  a  baby  boy  was  worth  $1,000.  Such  invid- 
ious comparisons,  made  in  regard  to  the  occupants  of  cradles,  did  not 
increase  either  the  humility  of  listening  boys,  or  the  self-respect  of  girls. 

Why  has  our  self-respect  become  enlarged?  Because  the  women  on  this 
platform,  with  their  compeers  who  have  passed  on,  have  shown  that  women 
may  possess  and  delight  in  powers  which  the  world  had  logically  proved  that 
our  sex  could  neither  possess  nor  support.  By  the  direct  influence  of  these 
women  ;  constitutions  and  statutes  of  civil  States  have  been  modified,  and 
the  constitutions  of  societies  have  been  framed.  These  women  have  preached 
sermons,  pronounced  orations,  edited  papers,  and  written  hymns,  which 
have  been  listened  to,  read,  and  sung  by  thousands,  nay,  by  millions,  of 
people. 

But  not  only  do  we  owe  these  beloved  women  the  self-respect  which  springs 
from  a  respect  for  one's  sex,  but  we  owe  them  for  an  indefinite  extension  of 
youth.  Women  have  always  been  distinguished  by  a  desire  to  remain  young. 
Although  it  was  a  man  who  had  the  credulity  to  believe  in   the  fountain  of 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  351 

immortal  youth,  and  the  vanity  to  fit  out  a  fleet  for  the  purpose  of  discover- 
ing it,  it  seems  to  have  been  reserved  for  women  to  find  it.  I  call  upon  this 
audience  to  witness  that  the  women  who  have  graced  this  platform  during 
the  morning,  have  discovered  the  fountain  of  eternal  youth  and  drunk  of  its 
rejuvenating  waters.  They  have  found  that  the  charmed  spring  bubbles, 
fresh,  sparkling,  and  bright,  in  the  fields  of  intellectual  and  moral  activity. 

Besides  self-respect  and  immortal  youth  we  are  indebted  to  these  women 
for  other  gifts  of  priceless  value.  To  them  we  are  grateful  for  the  large  work 
they  have  made  possible  to  our  hands,  for  the  large  hopes  with  which  they 
have  filled  our  hearts,  for  the  visions  which  their  fulfillment  of  their  own 
prophecies  has  revealed  to  the  most  skeptical  eyes.  This  hour  is  altogether 
too  serious,  too  sacred,  too  deep  in  its  significance  to  cheapen  it  by  one 
word  of  adulation.  For  every  word  of  criticism  and  opprobrium  that  has 
been  pronounced  upon  these  women,  volumes  shall  be  written  in  their 
praise.  For  every  jeer  and  scornful  laugh,  and  for  every  cynical  jest,  hymns 
shall  be  chanted  in  honor  of  their  memory. 

Inadequately  as  this  little  group  of  six,  expresses  the  feelings  of  the  young 
women  of  America  toward  these,  our  leaders,  I  would  pray  that  you  will 
regard  these  flowers  as  symbolic  of  our  affections  [the  flowers  were  then  pre- 
sented], and  with  their  fragrance  inhale  the  incense  of  our  gratitude.  But 
pioneers  are  not  always  old.  A  pioneer  is  one  that  inaugurates  a  work. 
These  women  were  pioneers  when  they  inaugurated  the  work  that  they 
have  done,  not  merely  now,  in  the  hour  of  its  partial  coronation.  No  one 
hesitates  to  call  Frances  Willard  and  Clara  Barton  pioneers,  although  they 
are  far  removed  from  three-score  years  and  ten.  And  even  in  the  work  of 
the  International  Council  we  may  have  pioneers.  Indeed,  I  feel  as  if  this 
youngest  of  our  number  [taking  Rachel  Foster  by  the  hand]  were  a  pioneer. 

At  this  moment,  Rev.  Annie  Shaw,  on  behalf  of  the  other 
members  of  the  committee,  presented  a  gold,  monogram  pin, 
with  these  words  : 

Miss  Shaw.  I  have  the  very  great  happiness  to  say  to  this  audience  this 
morning,  that  this  youngest  of  the  pioneers  answers  Mr.  Pomeroy's  question, 
*'  What  are  we  going  to  do  when  the  heads  of  our  leaders  grow  gray,  when 
their  steps  become  feeble,  when  their  hands  refuse  to  labor?  "  Such  heads 
as  this,  such  feet  as  hers,  such  hands  as  she  has  used  for  us,  and  such  a  kindly 
heart  as  she  has  shown  in  all  this  work,  shall  rise  up  to  take  the  places  of 
those  who  pass  on.  And,  as  a  slight  token  of  our  appreciation  and  love  to 
her,  long  after  the  Council  is  over,  we  have  decided  that  she  shall  take  home 
with  her  I.  C.  W.,  that  she  may  look  at  it  and  be  reminded  that  there  was 
once  an  International  Council  of  Women.  We  have  not  told  her  name,  but 
we  didn't  think  it  necessary.     It  is  Rachel  Foster,  of  Philadelphia. 


352  International  Council  of  Women. 

Miss  Anthony.  There  are  a  great  many  pioneers  on  the  platform  who 
have  had  no  chance  to  speak.  Will  you  all  please  stand,  that  the  audience 
may  see  you  ? 

Here  is  a  friend,  tried  and  true,  who  thirty  years  ago,  gave  us  sixty  dodars 
a  year,  to  help  the  cause  along — Albert  O.  Wilcox,  of  New  York  city. 

And  here  is  Clara  Barton,  who  was  the  pioneer  Government  department 
clerk  here  in  Washington  in  the  fifties,  before  the  war,  to  say  nothing  of  her 
services  in  the  war  and  in  the  Red  Cross. 

Here  is  Adeline  Thomson,  one  of  our  oldest  and  best  friends  in  Philadel- 
phia. 

This  is  Emily  P.  Collins,  who,  when  she  heard  of  the  Seneca  Falls  Con- 
vention, called  together  two  or  three  of  her  neighbors  in  the  little  village  of 
Bristol,  Ontario  County,  New  York,  and  organized  the  first  real  Woman's 
Rights  Society,  and  who  resurrected  a  capital  letter  from  Dr.  Elizabeth 
Blackwell,  which  you  will  find  in  the  History  of  Woman  Suffrage.* 

Will  the  doctors  stand  up  ?  This  is  Dr.  Hannah  Longshore,  who  was  one 
of  the  first  class  graduated  from  the  Women's  Medical  College  of  Philadelphia, 
of  which  that  noble  pioneer,  Ann  Preston,  was  president ;  and  here  are  Dr. 
Susan  A.  Edson  and  Caroline  B.  Winslow,  of  Washington.  And  this  is  Dr. 
Ruth  M.  Wood  who,  though  not  a  pioneer  in  years,  is  in  locality  ;  Dr. 
Wood  is  physician  and  director  of  the  Woman's  Industrial  Home  in  Salt 
Lake,  Utah.  And  there  is  Dr.  Pauline  Morton,  of  my  own  city;  though 
young,  and  a  homeopath,  she  is  nevertheless  one  of  the  city  physicians  of 
Rochester,  and  I  don't  believe  she  neglects  half  so  many  of  the  poor  as  do 
her  brothers  holding  the  same  office. 

Will  Amy  Post  stand  up?  I  want  all  to  see  the  woman  whose  house  has 
been  the  home,  not  only  of  the  fugitive  slave,  making  his  way  to  Canada, 
but  of  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  of  the  unfortunate. 

Mr.  Douglass.  I  want  to  say  that  all  that  Miss  Anthony  has  said  of 
Amy  Post,  and  more  than  all  she  said,  and  more  than  anybody  can  say  in 
her  praise,  will  not  be  too  much.  Her  home,  her  house,  as  it  has  been  well 
said,  has  been  the  shelter  of  the  poor  and  cast  out.  The  Indian,  the  African, 
the  despised  of  every  class,  have  found  shelter  with  Isaac  and  Amy  Post. 
And  I  rejoice  to  see  her  here  to-day,  because  she  was  the  first  in  whose 
eyes  I  found  sympathy  and  from  whose  lips  I  heard  words  of  cheer,  after  I 
escaped  from  the  chains  of  slavery. 

♦With  all  my  good  intentions  to  present  each  and  every  one  of  the  good  friends  on  the  stage 
I  missed  dear  Aunt  Dinah  Mendenhall,  who,  in  her  eighty-sixth  year,  attended  every  session 
of  the  Council,  and  who  was  present  at  the  first  Woman's  Rights  Convention,  held  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 1852.  Her  house,  at  Kennett  Square,  has  been  the  home  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison 
Wendell  Phillips,  Theodore  Parker,  Henry  C.  Wright,  Charles  Burleigh,  Stephen  Foster^ 
Joseph  Dugdale,  Frances  D.  Gage,  and  many,  many  other  pioneers  of  both  the  Anti-Slavery 
and  Woman's  Rights  movements.  There  were,  in  all,  forty-four  persons  (eight  men  and 
thirty-six  women)  who  wore  the  Pioneer's  badge— a  lavender  ribbon,  bearing  the  words  "  Pio- 
neer's Day— 1848-1888,"  in  silver  letters— hence  it  was  impossible  to  introduce  each,  individ- 
ually, to  the  audience.  S.  B.  A. 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  353 

Miss  Anthony.  Now,  I  introduce  to  you  a  woman  well  known  in  Wash- 
ington, a  woman  who,  when  we  held  our  first  convention  in  this  city  in  the 
winter  of  1869,  wrote  a  magnificent  report  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  and 
spoke  kindly  about  us  and  said  we  were  respectable  people — Grace  Green- 
wood. 

Mrs.  Lippincott  (Grace  Green  wood).  I  have  heard  of  a  certain  Irish 
disputant  who  once,  when  discussing  some  religious  question — woman's  right 
to  preach,  or  the  doctrine  of  "  original  sin"  (said  to  be  '•  a  very  good  doc- 
trine if  lived  up  to") — was  confronted  with  a  very  strong  text  from  one  of 
the  epistles  of  St.  Paul ;  but  he  was  quite  undismayed,  exclaiming  :  "  Paul, 
Paul,  is  it.     He  wasn't  one  of  the  twelve  !     He  was  an  interloper,  just  !" 

Now,  I  have  to  confess  that  I  am  not  one  of  the  original,  Simon-pure, 
female  suffragists,  enlisted  under  the  Stanton  and  Anthony  banner,  and  that 
so  I  am  an  interloper  among  the  pioneers.  Yet  I  have  always  accepted  and 
advocated,  in  my  way,  the  main  principles  of  the  society.  Why  I  did  not 
long  ago  join  it  I  can  hardly  say,  except  that  I  feared  being  called  upon  to 
make  off-hand  speeches;  feared  that,  not  being  trained  to  think  on  my  feet, 
I  might  put  my  foot  in  it.  Then,  I  had  always  so  many  other  irons  in  the 
fire,  I  burned  my  fingers  with  many  of  them,  and  they  were  often  other 
people's  irons  ;  but  I  have  kept  on  tending  them.  Still,  in  this  cause,  I  have 
wielded  a  pen-lance,  and  thrust  it  in  here  and  there,  wherever  I  spied  a  weak 
spot  in  the  enemy's  armor.  I  suppose  I  have  not  done  enough  service  to 
entitle  me  to  a  share  in  the  final  triumph  j  but  I  shall  get  there  all  the  same. 
I  have  something  of  the  faith  of  a  certain  little  girl,  who,  when  reproved  by 
her  mother  for  faults  and  short-comings,  and  warned  that  she  could  not  attain 
heavenly  joys  if  so  perverse,  cheerily  answered,  "  O  yes,  I  will.  Heaven  is 
big  and  wide,  and  God  is  going  to  let  in  a  thousand  naughty  children,  and 
I'm  going  in  along  with  them." 

Like  Artemus  Ward,  who  was  very  proud  of  the  gallant  way  in  which  his 
substitute  had  fought  and  bled  for  his  country,  I  have  fully  appreciated  the 
bravery  and  constancy  of  the  first  little  band  who  struck  for  women's  rights. 
I  like  this  good  old  term.  It  is  like  the  tattered  banner  that  has  floated  over  a 
hundred  battle-fields .  I  honor  all  the  old  leaders,  but  I  confess  I  make  my  lowest 
salaam  to  Susan  B.  Anthony.  She  has  dared  no  more  than  the  others,  but  she 
has  been  compelled  to  endure  more.  Lucretia  Mott,  pure  and  placid  prophetess 
of  reform,  disarmed  rude  opposition  by  her  sweet  Quaker  serenity,  which  was 
after  all  but  a  glove  of  velvet  over  a  grip  of  steel.  Stately  Mrs.  Stanton 
has  secured  much  immunity,  by  a  comfortable  look  of  motherliness  and  a 
sly  benignacy  in  her  smiling  eyes,  even  though  her  arguments  have  been 
bayonet  thrusts  and  her  words  hot  shot ;  while  Miss  Anthony,  passionate 
and  persistent,  with  her  "  undaunted  mettle  and  pure  grit,"  has  asked  no 
quarter,  and  certainly  has  received  none.  From  first  to  last  she  has  been 
the  target  for  "  the  slings  and  arrows  of  outrageous"  journalism.     Youthful 


354  International  Council  of  Women. 

reporters  and  paragraphists  have  tried  their  'prentice  hand  on  her.  When- 
ever the  mother-in-law  gave  out,  there  was  Susan  B.  Anthony  to  fall  back 
upon.  She  has  been  a  boon  and  a  benefaction  to  these  ingenuous  young 
gentlemen.  I  remember  that  about  ten  years  ago  I  said  to  some  of  the 
sauciest  of  these  now  in  Washington  :  "  For  shame,  boys;  not  one  of  you 
will  ever  make  the  man  she  is."  I  hope  they  received  the  admonition 
kindly,  took  pattern  by  her,  in  pluck  and  perseverance,  and  have  amounted 
to  something  after  all.  Certainly  the  women  of  this  great  Council  have 
not  to  complain  of  jounalistic  discourtesy. 

When  I  was  a  young  girl,  the  only  women  I  heard  speak  in  public  were 
Quaker  preachers  and  Methodist  exhorters.  The  first  mixed  their  sermons 
with  singing — about  half  and  half — the  second  nearly  shouted  their  hearts 
out,  and  yet  I  honored  them  for  daring  to  stand  up  and  free  their  minds  in 
the  awful  presence  of  men  and  God.  Afterwards  came  the  inspired  Pytho- 
ness— Abby  Kelley — the  noble  Grimke  sisters,  Lucretia  Mott,  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  Susan  B.  Anthony,  silver-voiced,  crystal -souled  Lucy  Stone — 
and  the  world  began  to  spin.  Ah !  the  changes.  It  almost  takes  one's 
breath  away  to  think  of  them.  A  little  over  forty  years  ago,  two  young  ladies 
whom  I  knew,  while  traveling  on  an  Ohio  River  steamer,  came  very  near 
being  put  ashore  where  there  was  no  landing,  for  the  crime  of  having  quietly 
left  the  dining  table,  from  which  they  had  seen  the  magnificent  young  ora- 
tor, Frederick  Douglass,  rudely  driven.  Less  than  forty  years  ago,  your 
present  speaker  was  ignominiously  dismissed  from  the  editorship  of  Godey'  s 
Ladies'  Book  for  the  dire  offense  of  having  published  a  little  poem  in  the 
National  Era,  an  anti-slavery  journal  of  this  city,  edited  by  Dr.  Bailey  and 
John  G.  Whittier.  When,  a  few  weeks  ago,  I  heard  that  my  dear  friend, 
Mrs.  Croly,  had  purchased  the  moribund  magazine  of  the  late  Mr.  Godey, 
proposing  to  reanimate  it,  I  said:  "  With  her  splendid  business  talent  and 
energy  she  may  succeed,  provided  she  changes  its  name;  anyhow  she  can't 
be  '  fired  out'  at  a  moment's  notice,  being  the  proprietor  of  the  whole  con- 
cern." 

And  this  brings  me  to  what  I  consider  one  of  the  great  keys  to  the  situa- 
tion we  would  occupy — business  capacity  and  training.  Let  women  sing  the 
refrain  of  Tennyson's  "Northern  Farmer,"  "  Prupperty,  Prupperty  !  " 
Nothing  will  so  effectually  spike  the  enemy's  guns  as  land  and  b?mk  stock. 
Yes,  I  have  seen  many  wonderful  changes,  moral  and  political,  and  I  expect 
to  see  more.  I  hope  to  have  the  ballot  before  I  die.  Yet  should  it  only 
find  me  in  extremis,  I  think  it  would  be  like  me  to  shake  the  precious  scrap 
of  paper  in  the  face  of  death  and  the  doctors,  and  say,  "  I  must  and  will 
live  to  use  this  !  " 

I  am  a  lover  of  fair  play.  In  all  these  sessions  of  our  grand  Council  only 
one  side  of  the  suffrage  question  has  been  presented,  and  so  I  the  more  readily 
yield  to  a  request  to  give  a  condensation  of  the  arguments  of  our  opponents, 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  355 

even  the  most  able  and  distinguished,  as  contained  in  some  verses  I  wrote 
some  years  ago  for  one  Mistress  O'Rafferty,  a  respectable  laundress,  who  had 
been  importuned  by  a  progressive  neighbor  to  go  for  the  ballot,  etc.  Since 
my  long  residence  abroad  I  have  been  accused  of  being  a  bad  American,  but 
you  will  see  I  am  a  worse  Irish  woman. 

MISTRESS  O'RAFFERTY  ON  THE  WOMAN  QUESTION. 
No  !  I  wouldn't  demane  myself,  Bridget, 

Like  you  in  disputing  with  men. 
Would  I  fly  in  the  face  of  the  blissed 

A  postles,  and  Father  Maginn  ? 
It  isn't  the  talent  I'm  wanting, 

Sure  my  father,  old  Michael  McCrary, 
Made  a  beautiful  last  speech  and  confession 

When  they  hanged  him  in  ould  Tipperary. 
So,  Bridget  Muldoon,  hould  your  talking 

About  "  Woman's  Rights  "  and  all  that, 
Sure  flll  the  rights  I  want  is  the  one  right- 
To  be  a  good  help-mate  to  Pat ; 
For  he's  a  good  husband,  and  niver 

Lays  on  me  the  weight  of  his  hand, 
Except  when  he's  far  gone  in  liquor, 

And  I  nag  him,  you'll  plaise  understand. 
Thrue  for  ye,  I've  one  eye  in  mourning. 

That's  because  I  disputed  his  right 
To  take  and  spind  all  my  week's  earnings 

At  Tim  Mulligan's  wake  Sunday  night. 
But  it's  sildom  when  I've  done  a- washing 

He'll  ask  for  mor'n  half  of  the  pay, 
And  he'll  toss  me  my  share  with  a  smile,  dear, 

That's  like  a  sweet  morning  in  May. 
Now  where,  if  I  rin  to  convintions, 

WTill  be  Patrick's  home  comforts  and  joys  ? 
Who'll  chine  up  his  brogans  for  Sunday, 

Or  patch  up  his  old  corduroys  ? 
It  we  take  to  the  polls  night  and  morning 

Our  dilicate  charms  will  all  flee, 
The  dew  will  be  brushed  from  the  rose,  dear, 

The  down  from  the  pache— don't  you  see  ? 
We'll  soon  take  to  shillalahs  and  shindies 

When  we  get  to  be  sovereign  electors— 
And  turn  all  our  husband's  hearts  from  us, 

Then  what  will  we  do  for  protectors? 
We'll  have  to  be  crowners  and  judges. 

And  such  like  ould  malefactors,    . 
Or  they'll  make  common  councilmen  of  us, 

Then  where  will  be  our  characters  ? 
Oh  !  Bridget,  God  save  us  from  voting, 

For  sure  as  the  blissed  sun  rolls, 
We'll  land  in  the  State-House  or  Congress ! 

Then  what  will  become  of  our  souls  ? 

Miss  Anthony.  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  this  pile  of  letters  which 
will  be  published  in  the  Daily  Woman's  Tribune. 

Here  is  one  from  Ernestine  L.  Rose,  who  addressed  the  legislature  of 
Michigan  as  early  as  1836,  demanding  woman's  enfranchisement.  Mrs.  Rose 
lives  in  London,  and  is  in  spirit  with  us  to-day,  though  too  feeble  to  be  here 
in  person. 


356  International  Council  of  Women. 

Here  is  one  from  Prudence  Crandall,  the  woman,  you  remember,  whose 
school-house  was  burned  and  who  was  mobbed  and  traduced  in  every  way, 
simply  because  she  taught  negro  girls  to  read  and  write. 

And  here  is  a  beautiful  letter  from  that  beautiful  spirit,  John  G.  Whittier, 
and  here  is  one  from  Elizabeth  Pease  Nichol,  whom  Mrs.  Stanton,  Miss 
Grew,  and  Miss  Southwick  met  when  they  were  in  London  in  1840,  and 
who,  on  first  hearing  of  this  Council,  wrote  me  this  beautiful  letter,  inclosing 
a  bill  of  exchange,  which  has  helped  us  along  most  delightfully. 

And  another  is  from  Dr.  James  C.  Jackson,  of  Dansville  Water  Cure,  who 
has  educated  vast  numbers  of  women  how  to  live.  And  here  is  one  from 
Elizabeth  B.  Chase,  of  Rhode  Island,  and  one  from  Armenia  S.  White,  of 
New  Hampshire.  Another  is  from  Abby  Hopper  Gibbons,  daughter  of  Isaac 
T.  Hopper,  of  New  York  city,  who  sends  a  check  because  of  her  reverent 
memory  of  Horace  Greeley.  And  here  is  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Gray, 
of  Wyandotte,  Kas.,  with  a  beautiful  tribute  to  Mrs.  Nichols,  the  pio- 
neer of  our  movement  in  Vermont  as  well  as  Kansas.  And  here  is  one 
from  Dr.  Mary  F.  Thomas,  of  Richmond,  Ind.,  the  sister  of  Dr.  Long- 
shore, and  another  from  the  Hon.  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  of  Boston,  who 
expected  to  be  here,  but  who  writes  at  the  last  moment  that  he  and  his 
wife  are  not  able  to  leave  home.  Then  here  is  a  letter  from  Oliver  John, 
son,  who  was  one  of  the  attendants  of  the  early  conventions  in  the  State  of 
Ohio.  And  here  is  one  from  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  and  one 
from  Theodore  D.  Weld,  that  glorious  pioneer  who,  with  Henry  B.  Stanton, 
led  that  grand  army  that  came  out  of  Lane  Seminary,  because  they  had  pro- 
nounced themselves  opposed  to  slavery. 

This  is  from  Lucy  N.  Colman,  one  of  the  earliest  advocates  of  woman's 
rights.  This  from  Amelia  Bloomer,  who,  through  her  paper,  the  Lily,  did 
much  for  our  woman's  cause  in  those  olden  days.  This  is  from  Hon.  George 
W.  Julian,  of  Indiana,  who  presented  the  first  Sixteenth  Amendment  resolu- 
tion in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1868.  This  is  a  brief  note  from  our 
dear  Dr.  Clemence  S.  Lozier,  who,  up  to  the  last  moment,  expected  to  be 
with  us.  Dr.  Lozier's  house  has  been  the  headquarters  of  suffrage,  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  the  past  thirty  years. 

One  name  I  must  mention  before  Mr.  Hutchinson  sings,  and  that  is  Frances 
Wright,  who  was  the  first  woman  in  this  country  to  take  part  in  a  political 
campaign,  that  of  Andrew  Jackson  in  1828,  and  who  was  truly  the  pioneer 
in  demanding  freedom  for  woman  from  the  rule  of  priestcraft,  suffering  there- 
for the  grossest  ridicule  and  abuse. 

And  yet  one  word  of  the  work  of  Mrs.  Stanton's  later  days.  She,  with 
the  help  of  Mrs.  Gage,  has  gathered  up  the  facts  of  this  great  movement  and 
put  them  into  three  huge  volumes,  entitled  "  The  History  of  Woman  Suf- 
frage." If  you  wish  to  learn  more  of  the  work  or  of  the  men  "and  women 
who  did  it,  you  will  find  it  in   these  books.     If  the  women  of  forty  year^ 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  357 

ago  had  realized  the  importance  of  the  things  they  were  doing,  and  the 
words  they  were  uttering,  they  would  have  preserved  them  ;  but  they  thought 
they  were  doing  nothing  extraordinary,  and  the  records  were  lost.  These 
volumes  preserve  such  fragments  as  we  have  been  able  to  gather  together. 
So  I  urge  every  one  of  you  to  make  a  solemn  resolution  to-day,  that  every 
good  thing  which  a  woman  does,  every  good  society  that  is  formed,  every 
organization  that  you  have  anything  to  do  with,  you  will  send  a  short  postal 
card  or  letter  to  Lucy  Stone,  as  editor  of  the  Woman' s  Journal,  Boston  ; 
to  Clara  B.  Colby,  editor  of  the  Woman's  Tribune,  Beatrice,  Neb.;  or,  to 
Caroline  Huling,  editor  of  Justitia,  Chicago,  'that  all  these  things  may  be 
preserved.  Women  will  never  be  properly  recorded  in  history,  never  be 
properly  painted  on  canvas,  until  they  do  the  work  themselves. 

John  Hutchinson  then  rendered,  with  all  his  old-time  fer- 
vor, a  song  written  for  him  over  thirty  years  ago  by  "Aunt 
Fanny"  Gage,  "A  Hundred  Years  Hence."  He  then  led  the 
audience  in  singing  the  beautiful  words  of  John  W.  Chad- 
wick*  to  the  tune  of  "Auld  Lang  Syne."  The  meeting  ad- 
journed, the  session  having  lasted  four  hours. 

extracts  from  letters  from  pioneers. 

Huntley  Lodge,  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 
My  Dear  Friend:  As  I  shall  not  be  able  to  take  part  by  tongue  or  pen  in  your 
Convention  to  be  beld  at  Washington  in  March  next,  I  beg  you  to  accept  the  in- 
closed little  donation  toward  its  expenses.  It  affords  me  pleasure  to  indicate  in  this 
small  way  the  interest  and  sympathy  which  I  feel  and  have  always  felt  in  the  move- 
ment in  your  country,  as  well  as  in  that  of  my  own,  which  seeks  to  obtain  for  woman 
the  right  to  vote  in  the  election  of  those  who  frame  the  laws,  which  woman  equally 
with  man  is  bound  to  obey.  Earnestly  desiring  that  success  may  attend  your  efforts, 
and  that  the  gathering  in  March  may  give  an  impetus  to  the  cause  to  which  you 
have  devoted  so  many  years  of  your  life,  even  beyond  your  highest  anticipations, 
I  am  yours  very  affectionately,  Elizabeth  Pease  Nichol. 

Ernestine  L.  Rose,  in   her  letter  of  greeting,  asked  that  a 

part  of  an  address  delivered  by  her  in  Boston  in  1851,  have  a 

place  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Pioneers'  Conference.     Some 

of  her  words,  spoken  so  long  ago,  seem  like  a  prophecy  of  the 

events  of  to-day. 

While  nations  strive  against  nations,  people  against  people,  to  attain  the  same 
amount  of  freedom  already  possessed  in  this  country,  Woman  is  rising  in  the  full 
dignity  of  her  being  to  claim  the  recognition  of  her  rights.  And  though  the  first 
public  demonstration  has  been  here  (in  America),  already  has  the  voice  of  woman 
in  behalf  of  her  sex  been  carried,  as  it  were,  on  the  wings  of  lightning  to  all  parts 
of  Europe,  whose  echo  has  brought  back  the  warmest,  most  heartfelt  responses  from 
our  sisters  there. 

******* 

*  Hymn  No.  4,  page  19. 


358  International  Council  of  Women. 

And,  therefore,  while  I  feel  it  a  duty— aye,  a  painful  duty — to  point  cut  the  wrong 
done  to  woman  and  its  evil  consequences,  and  would  do  all  in  my  power  to  aid  in 
her  deliverance,  I  can  have  no  more  ill-feelings  toward  him  (man)  than  for  the  same 
errors  towards  her.  Both  are  the  victims  of  error  and  ignorance,  and  both  suffer; 
hence  the  necessity  for  active,  earnest  endeavors  to  enlighten  their  minds;  hence 
the  necessity  to  protest  against  the  wrong  and  claim  our  rights,  and  in  doing  our 
duty  we  must  not  heed  the  taunts,  ridicule,  and  stigma  cast  upon  us.  We  must 
remember  we  have  a  crusade  before  us,  far  holier  and  more  righteous  than  led  war- 
rior to  Palestine — a  crusade  not  to  deprive  anyone  of  his  rights,  but  to  claim  our 
own;  and  as  our  cause  is  a  better  one,  so,  also,  must  be  the  means  to  achieve  it.  We, 
therefore,  must  put  on  the  armor  of  Charity,  carry  before  us  the  banner  of  Truth, 
and  defend  ourselves  with  the  shield  of  Right  against  the  invaders  of  our  liberty. 
And  yet,  like  the  knights  of  old,  we  must  enlist  in  the  holy  cause,  with  a  disinterested 
devotion,  energy,  and  determination  never  to  turn  back  until  we  have  conquered — 
not,  indeed,  to  drive  the  Turk  from  his  possession,  but  to  claim  our  rightful  inheri- 
tance for  his  benefit  as  well  as  our  own. 

To  achieve  this  great  victory  of  right  over  might,  woman  has  much  to  do.  She 
must  not  sit  idle  and  wait  till  man,  inspired  by  justice  and  humanity,  shall  work  out 
her  redemption.  It  has  been  well  said,  "  Who  would  be  free,  himself  must  strike 
the  blow."  It  is  with  individuals  as  with  nations;  if  they  do  not  strive  to  help  them- 
selves, no  one  will  help  them.  Man  may,  and,  in  the  nature  of  things,  will,  remove 
the  legal,  political,  and  civil  disabilities  from  woman  and  recognize  her  as  equal 
with  himself,  and  it  will  do  much  toward  her  elevation;  but  the  law  can  not  compel 
her  to  cultivate  her  physical  and  mental  powers  and  take  a  stand  as  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent being.  All  that,  she  has  to  do.  She  must  investigate  and  take  interest  in 
everything  on  which  the  welfare  of  society  depends,  for  the  interest  and  happiness 
of  every  individual  member,  is  connected  with  that  of  the  whole.  She  must  at  once 
claim  and  exercise  those  rights  and  privileges  with  which  the  laws  do  not  interfere, 
and  it  will  aid  her  to  obtain  all  the  rest.  She  must,  therefore,  throw  off  that  heavy 
yoke  that,  like  a  nightmare,  weighs  down  her  best  energies — i.  e. ,  the  fear  of  public 
opinion.     *    *    * 

The  priests  well  know  the  influence  and  value  of  women  when  warmly  engaged 
in  any  cause,  and,  therefore,  as  long  as  they  can  keep  them  steeped  in  superstitious 
darkness  so  long  are  they  safe;  and  hence  the  horror  and  anathema  against  every 
woman  that  has  intelligence,  spirit,  and  moral  courage  to  cast  off  the  dark  and  op- 
pressive yoke  of  superstition.  But  she  must  do  it,  or  she  will  ever  remain  a  slave; 
for,  of  all  tyranny,  that  of  superstition  is  the  greatest,  and  he  is  the  most  abject 
slave  who  tamely  submits  to  its  yoke.  Woman,  then,  must  cast  it  off  as  her  greatest 
enemy;  and  the  time,  I  trust,  will  come,  when  she  will  aid  man  to  remove  the  politi- 
cal, civil,  and  religious  evils  that  have  swept  over  the  earth  like  some  malignant 
scourge,  to  lay  waste  and  destroy  so  much  of  the  beauty,  harmony,  and  happiness  of 
mankind;  and  the  old  fable  of  the  fall  of  man  through  a  woman,  will  be  superseded 
by  the  glorious  fact  that  she  was  instrumental  in  the  elevation  of  the  race  toward  a 
higher,  nobler,  and  happier  destiny. 

Oak  Knoll,  Danvers,  Mass.,  March  8,  188S. 
My  Dear  Friend  :  I  thank  thee  for  thy  kind  letter.     It  would  be  a  great  satis- 
faction to  be  able  to  be  present  at  the  fortieth  anniversary  of  the  Woman  Suf- 
frage Association ;  but,  as  that  is  not  possible,  I  can  only  reiterate  my  hearty  sym- 
pathy with  the  object  of  the  association,  and  bid  it  take  heart  and  assurance  invieW 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  359 

of  all  that  has  heen  accomplished.  There  is  no  easy,  royal  road  to  a  reform  of  this 
kind,  but  if  the  progress  has  been  slow,  there  has  been  no  step  backward.  The  bar- 
riers which  at  first  seemed  impregnable  in  the  shape  of  custom  and  prejudice,  have 
been  undermined,  and  their  fall  is  certain.  A  prophecy  of  your  triumph  at  no  dis- 
tant day,  is  in  the  air  ;  your  opponents  feel  it  and  believe  it.  They  know  that  yours 
is  a  gaining  and  theirs  a  losing  cause. 

The  work  still  before  you  demands  on  your  part,  great  patience,  steady  persever- 
ance ;  a  firm,  dignified  and  self-respecting  protest  against  the  injustice  of  which  you 
have  so  much  reason  to  complain  ;  serene  confidence  which  is  not  discouraged  by 
temporary  checks,  nor  embittered  by  hostile  criticism,  nor  provoked  to  use  any 
weapons  of  retort,  which,  like  the  boomerang,  fall  back  on  the  heads  of  those  who 
use  them.  You  can  afford,  in  your  consciousness  of  right,  to  be  as  calm  and  courte- 
ous as  the  archangel  Michael,  who,  we  are  told  in  Scripture,  in  his  controversy  with 
Satan  himself,  did  not  bring  a  railing  accusation  against  him.  A  wise  adaptation  of 
means  to  ends  is  no  yielding  of  principle,  but  care  should  be  taken  to  avoid  all  such 
methods  as  have  disgraced  political  and  religious  parties  of  the  masculine  sex.  Con- 
tinue to  make  it  manifest,  that  all  which  is  pure  and  lovely  and  of  good  repute  in 
womanhood,  is  entirely  compatible  with  the  exercise  of  the  rights  of  citizenship,  and 
the  performance  of  the  duties  which  we  all  owe  to  our  homes  and  our  country. 
Confident  that  you  will  do  this,  and  with  no  doubt  or  misgiving  as  to  your  success, 
I  bid  you  God-speed.  I  find  I  have  written  to  the  association  rather  than  to  thyself, 
but  as  one  of  the  principal  originators  and  most  faithful  supporters,  it  was  very  nat. 
ural  that  I  should  identify  thee  with  it. 

I  am,  very  truly  thy  friend,  John  G.  Whittier. 

To  Susan  B.  Anthony. 

No.  4  Park  St.,  Boston,  Mass.,  March  18,  1888. 
My  Dear  Miss  Anthony:  I  am  very  much  disappointed  that  neither  Mrs.  Sewalj 
nor  myself  will  be  able  to  attend  the  Council  of  Women  at  Washington.  This 
Council  is  very  opportune  to  mark  the  progress  which  the  emancipation  of  women 
has  made  in  forty  years.  *  *  *  What  has  been  accomplished  since  1848  in  the 
United  States  is  so  wonderful  that  it  is  difficult  to  induce  persons  who  have  grown 
up  during  that  period,  to  believe  the  existence  of  such  laws  as  oppressed  their 
mothers.  I  congratulate  the  Council  on  the  auspicious  prospects  of  the  new  era  on 
which  we  have  entered.  Victory  is  certain,  though  the  war  is  not  ended.  Much 
depends  on  the  women  themselves.  What  they  have  done  is  known.  It  gives  us 
good  reason  to  think  they  will  do  more  and  better.  And  they  will  find  more  and 
more  devoted  friends  and  appreciaters  of  the  other  sex. 

Very  truly  yours,  ■  Samuel  E.  Sewall. 


Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  March,  1888. 
Dear  Miss  Anthony:  I  would  like  very  much  to  attend  the  meeting  at  Washing- 
ton, but  the  infirmities  of  seventy  years  prevent.  What  a  change  in  sentiment  since 
I  used  to  find  it  difficult  to  find  a  place,  even  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  people  did 
not  feel  disgraced  by  the  name  of  "Woman's  Rights."  I  hope,  as  we  become 
popular,  we  shall  also  become  wise,  and  not  imitate  our  brothers  in  governmental 
wrongs. 

Faithfully,  Lucy  N.  Colman. 


360  International  Council  of  Women. 

Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  March  19,  1888. 

Dear  Miss  Anthony:  I  will  be  with  you  in  spirit  and  take  my  place  among  the 
pioneers  and  greet  you  all,  and  in  thought,  go  back  over  all  those  early  years  when 
I  was  your  co-laborer,  and  with  voice  and  pen  gave  my  feeble  aid  to  the  cause  in  its 
infancy  and  days  of  great  trial,  ere  it  had  grown  so  strong  as  to  command  the  respect 
and  attention  of  the  whole  world,  as  it  does  to-day.  It  needed  not  the  letter  you 
sent  me  from  a  friend  of  four-score  years,  to  show  that  the  Lily  did  a  good  work. 
Such  testimony  has  come  to  me  all  down  through  the  years  since  its  first  issue  to 
the  public.  I  know  that  all  over  the  land  there  are  hundreds  of  people  who  gained 
their  first  knowledge  of  the  principles  which  underlie  the  woman's  movement,  by 
reading  that  little  paper.  You  and  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Frances  D.  Gage  and  many 
others  lent  helping  hands  to  me  in  that  work;  but  be  sure  the  little  messenger  went 
on  its  way  with  good  tidings,  scattering  seed  where  our  voices  could  not  reach;  and, 
all  over  the  land,  we  see  the  fruit  of  that  labor.  The  motive  power  that  directed, 
guided,  and  controlled  that  enterprise  was  not  strong  or  experienced;  but  it  was 
such  as  was  needed  in  the  infancy  of  our  cause,  and  made  an  impression  where  the 
stronger  minds  of  to-day  would,  at  that  time,  have  failed.  I  gave  my  best  years  to 
the  work.  I  am  glad  to  know  that  at  the  head  of  the  army  of  recruits  that  have 
rallied  to  the  standard  set  up  forty  years  ago,  Mrs.  Stanton,  Lucy  Stone,  Antoinette 
Brown,  and  yourself  still  stand,  the  respected  and  honored  leaders  of  the  host — with 
armor  on,  ready  for  whatever  further  efforts  and  sacrifice  may  be  asked  of  you. 

May  you  live  to  see  and  enjoy  the  full  triumph  of  your  labors  !  In  running  my 
mind's  eye  over  the  list  of  prominent  actors  in  the  drama  first  brought  upon  the 
world's  stage  near  forty  years  ago,  I  miss  many  whose  words  were  dear  to  us — many 
who,  if  living,  would  have  honored  seats  in  your  Council.  Lucretia  Mott,  Ernestine 
L.  Rose,  Frances  D.  Gage,  Clarina  I.  H.  Nichols,  Paulina  Wright  Davis,  Jane  G, 
Swisshelm,  Jane  Pierson,  Emily  Clark,  Mary  C.  Vaughan,  and  others — pioneers  all — 
have  finished  their  work  upon  earth  and  gone  to  their  reward.  Blessed  be  their 
memory !  May  we  not  believe  their  spirits  are  hovering  over  this  Council  with 
benedictions  of  peace  and  love  ?  And,  in  your  Pioneer  Conference,  shall  not  all  be 
remembered  who  gave  their  hearts  and  hands  to  the  help  of  humanity,  in  the  days 
when  to  be  identified  with  the  unpopular  movement,  was  to  take  up  a  cross  ?  Wishing 
you  great  success,  both  in  Council  and  in  sessions  of  Convention, 

I  am,  yours  very  sincerely,  Amelia  Bloomer. 


Hyde  Park,  Mass.,  March  15,  1888. 
Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony  : 

My  Dear  Friend  :  My  thanks  for  your  invitation  to  the  International  Council 
and  the  Conference  of  Pioneers  at  Washington.  You  add,  "  If  it  be  impossible  for 
you  to  be  with  us  in  person,  I  hope  you  will  be  by  letter,  giving  us  a  brief  word  of 
your  Angelina's  and  Sarah's  earliest  entrance  upon  their  woman's  work,  and  your 
hearty  indorsement  thereof." 

As  prior  engagements  elsewhere  make  it  impossible  for  me  to  be  with  you  at  the 
time  you  name,  I  will  gladly  write  out  what  you  ask  for.* 

****** 

They  felt  profoundly  that  the  subjugation  of  woman  and  that  of  the  slave  involved 
elementally  the  same  principle— both  robbed  of  rights — the  slave  of  his  self -right 
and  thus  of  all  rights,  as  all  inhere  in  that  and  perish  with  it.     The  slave  law,  anni- 

*  Part  of  Mr.  Weld's  letter  is  omitted,  because  the  lives  of  the  Grimke  sisters  have  already 
been  outlined  by  more  than  one  of  the  speakers  of  the  Pioneers'  Conference. 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  361 

hilating  the  man,  leaves  the  slave  a  mere  thing,  a  chattel,  the  slaveholder's  property. 
"Woman,  too,  is  robbed  of  her  self-right  in  part,  and  largely  of  her  relative  rights. 

Throughout  the  subsequent  career  of  the  sisters,  while  the  sole  topic  in  their  pub- 
lic lectures  was  the  slave  question,  yet  in  their  private  intercourse  and  letters  their 
testimony  was  frequent  and  uniform  that  man's  original  subjugation  of  woman  and 
his  persistence  in  holding  her  thus  subjugated,  was  and  is,  in  spirit  and  principle, 
slaveholding,  and  that  the  wrong  thus  inflicted  from  time  immemorial,  has  been  the 
foster  father  and  mother  of  all  other  forms  of  human  oppression.  Inklings  of  this 
testimony  to  the  equality  of  woman's  rights  with  man's,  appear  variously  in  the 
sayings  and  doings  of  both  sisters  ever  afterward. 

"VYe  preface  the  first  special  public  instance  of  this  with  the  following  statement : 
In  the  spring  of  1837  the  Woman's  Anti-Slavery  Society  of  New  York  city,  issued  a  call 
for  a  general  anti-slavery  convention  of  American  women,  to  be  held  there  May  9, 10, 
11,  12.  Some  three  hundred  women,  representing  ten  States,  were  enrolled  as  mem- 
bers, and  six  subjects  were  reported  for  their  consideration.  The  first  on  the  list 
was  "  An  Appeal  to  the  Women  of  the  Nominally  Free  States."  This  appeal  was 
presented  by  Angelina  Grimke,  the  chairmau  of  the  committee  appointed  therefor, 
and  was  published  by  the  convention.  That  pamphlet  has  been  long  out  of  print, 
but  I  find  in  Mrs.  Birney's  memorial  of  the  sisters  Grimke  this  comment  upon  it- 
She  says:  "  The  appeal  is  made  chiefly  to  woman's  tenderest  and  holiest  feelings, 
but  enough  is  said  of  her  rights,  to  show  whither  Angelina's  own  reflections  were 
leading  her.  A  passage  or  two  may  be  quoted  as  examples.  '  Every  citizen  should 
feel  an  interest  in  the  political  concerns  of  his  country,  because  the  honor  and  well- 
being  of  every  class  is  bound  up  in  its  political  government  and  laws.'  'Are  we 
aliens  because  we  are  women  ?  Are  we  bereft  of  citizenship  because  we  are  the 
mothers,  wives,  and  daughters  of  a  mighty  people  ?  Ours  is  a  great  moral  work. ' 
'  Wisdom  crieth  without,  "Whosoever  is  of  a  willing  heart  let  him  bring  an  offering.' 
4  Shall  woman  refuse  her  response  to  the  call  ?  "Was  she  created  to  be  a  helpmeet  for 
man,  his  sorrows  to  divide,  his  joys  to  share,  and  his  toils  to  lighten  by  her  willing- 
aid,  and  shall  she  refuse  to  aid  him  with  her  labor  and  her  counsel,  too,  at  such  a 
time  as  this  ?'  " 

Later  in  the  convention  Angelina  offered  the  following  resolution:  "Resolved, 
That  as  certain  rights  and  duties  are  common  to  all  moral  beings,  the  time  has  come 
for  woman  to  move  in  that  sphere  to  which  Providence  has  assigned  her,  and  no 
longer  remain  satisfied  in  the  circumscribed  limits  with  which  corrupt  custom  and 
a  perverted  application  of  Scripture  have  encircled  her;  therefore,  it  is  the  duty  of 
woman,  and  the  province  of  woman,  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  and  to  do 
all  that  she  can  by  her  voice,  her  pen,  and  her  example,  to  overthrow  the  horrible 
system  of  American  slavery."  The  resolution  was  sustained  by  the  mover  and  by 
Lucretia  Mott.  Amendments  were  offered  by  Mary  Grew  and  Mrs.  A.  L.  Cox, 
which  called  forth  an  animated  debate  respecting  the  rights  and  duties  of  women. 
As  the  convention  declined  to  pass  the  amendments  proposed,  twelve  of  the  members 
entered  their  names  upon  the  records  in  protest  against  the  views  expressed  respect- 
ing the  rights  of  woman.  At  the  close  of  the  convention,  the  sisters,  at  the  invita- 
tion of  the  Boston  Female  Anti-slavery  Society,  began  their  labors  in  Massachusetts. 

Early  in  June  a  Massachusetts  anti-slavery  convention  was  held  in  Boston.  Mrs. 
Birney,  in  her  memorial,  says:  "  In  writing  about  the  convention  to  Jane  Smith, 
Angelina  first  touches  upon  the  dawning  feeling  on  the  woman  question.  She  says: 
'At  friend  Chapman's,  where  we  spent  a  social  evening,  I  had  a  long  talk  with  the 
brethren  on  the  rights  of  women,  and  found  a  very  general  sentiment  that  it  is  time 
24 


362  International  Council  of  Women. 

our  fetters  were  tnoken.  Lydia  Maria  Child  and  Maria  Chapman  strongly  supported 
this  view;  indeed,  very  many  seemed  to  think  a  new  order  of  things  must  come. 
Now,  my  dear  friend,  I  feel  it  is  not  the  cause  of  the  slave  only  that  we  plead,  but 
the  cause  of  woman  as  a  moral,  responsible  being.'  "     *    *    * 

I  see  that  I  have  overlooked  one  of  your  requests;  thatis,  my  "  hearty  indorsement" 
of  their  views  touching  the  equality  of  woman's  rights  with  man's.  In  Mrs.  Bir- 
ney's  book  I  find  the  following  extract  of  one  of  my  letters  to  Angelina,  written  in 
August,  1837:  "  As  to  the  rights  and  the  wrongs  of  women,  it  is  an  old  theme  with 
me;  it  was  the  first  subject  I  ever  discussed.  In  a  little  debating  society,  when  a  boy, 
I  took  the  ground  that  sex  neither  qualifies  nor  disqualifies  for  the  discharge  of  any 
functions,  mental,  moral,  or  spiritual;  that  there  is  no  reason  why  woman  should 
not  make  laws,  administer  justice,  sit  in  the  chair  of  state,  plead  at  the"  bar  or  in 
the  pulpit,  if  she  has  the  requisite  qualifications."  What  I  advocated  in  boyhood 
I  advocate  now — that  woman  in  every  particular  shares  equally  with  man,  rights 
and  responsibilities.  I  doubt  not  that  the  foregoing  is  a  sufficiently  "  hearty  indorse- 
ment "  to  pass  muster. 

Now,  with  exultant  God-speed  to  you  all,  as  you  sit  in  your  International  Council 
and  Conference  of  Pioneers,  in  your  grand  millennial  work  now  fast  rounding  on  to 
its  jubilee, 

I  am,  dear  friend,  faithfully  yours,  Theodore  D.  "Weld. 

Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico,  March  18,  1888. 

My  Dear  Mies  Anthony:  I  am  very  sorry  that  unavoidable  circumstances  will 
prevent  me  from  attending  your  anniversary  meeting.  It  would  afford  me  the  sin- 
cerest  and  most  heartfelt  pleasure  to  join  you  and  your  worthy  associates  in  com- 
memorating the  historic  convention  of  women  which  assembled  at  Seneca  Falls 
forty  years  ago.  I  remember  it  well,  for  I  had  espoused  the  cause  of  woman'* 
enfranchisement  the  year  before,  after  reading  Harriet  Martineau's  chapter  on  the 
"  Political  Non-existence  of  "Women,"  in  her  book  on  "  Society  in  America."   *  *  * 

The  work  done  is  simply  amazing,  and  it  can  not  fail  to  inspire  with  renewed 
faith  and  fresh  courage  every  friend  of  the  great  cause.  All  honor  to  its  pioneers, 
a  few  of  whom  yet  remain  to  share  the  blessed  fruition  of  their  heroic  endeavors. 

"  The  good  can  well  afford  to  wait ; 

Give  ermined  knaves  their  hour  of  crime  ; 
Ye  have  the  future  grand  and  great, 
The  safe  appeal  of  truth  to  time." 

Wishing  great  success  to  your  Convention. 

I  am  very  faithfully  yours,  Geo.  W.  Julian. 

Dr.  Mary  F.  Thomas,  one  of  the  eight  who  were  graduated  in 
the  first  class  from  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, writes  • 

My  thoughts  go  back  to  a  Sabbath  afternoon  in  June,  1836,  when  the  attention  of 
three  young  sisters  was  first  especially  called  to  the  inequality  of  woman's  wages, 
and  when  they  determined  to  "  bear  testimony  "  against  this  wrong.  To  this  end 
we  attended  school  lyceumsin  our  neighborhood,  and  talked  on  these  subjects,  often 
against  ridicule  for  our  silly  notions.  But  we  did  not  realize  from  our  untrained 
standpoint  what  was  the  true  basis  of  the  political  inferiority  of  women  until  Sep- 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  363 

tember,  1845,  when  our  now  sainted  Lucretia  Mott  attended  the  Yearly  Meeting  at 
Salem,  Ohio.  After  the  meeting  some  young  people  prevailed  on  Mrs.  Mott  to  speak 
on  ""Woman's  Education."  She  urged  us  to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  laws,  and  to 
ask  for  equal  political  rights. 

One  of  the  girls  referred  to  died  a  few  years  since,  having  done  all  she  could  to 
carry  out  in  Ohio  their  early  resolution.  The  second  is  a  physician  in  Philadelphia 
(Dr.  Hannah  Longshore,  present  at  the  Council  and  referred  to  elsewhere)  who  has 
proved  the  sincerity  of  her  pledge  by  a  life  devoted  to  the  elevation  of  women.  The 
third  is  your  correspondent,  a  pioneer  physician  still  in  the  harness,  who  does  not 
expect  a  release  from  labor  until  the  equal  rights  of  all  are  acknowledged,  unless 
sooner  called  from  work  to  reward. 

Mary  F.  Thomas. 

Richmond,  Ind.,  March  22,  1888. 

Letter  from  Mary  T.  Gray,  of  Wyandotte,  Kans.,  giving  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  work  of  Clarina  I.  Howard  Nichols. 

Among  the  most  novel  sights  at  the  Territorial  Constitutional  Convention.*  where 
the  presence  of  women  was  rare,  was  the  figure  of  Mrs.  C.  I.  H.  Nichols.  At  the 
right  hand  of  the  speaker,  and  a  step  lower  than  his  platform,  beside  a  table,  sat  day 
after  day  this  slender,  middle-aged  woman,  of  spare  but  not  ungraceful  figure,  of 
clear  searching  eyes  and  a  high  brow  shaded  with  dark  curls.  Coming  in  daily  on 
horseback  from  her  home,  three  miles  distant,  one  found  her  always  at  her  table, 
sitting  there  patiently  through  the  heat  of  the  scorching  July  days,  sometimes  knit- 
ting, but  more  often  busy  with  pencil  or  pen,  with  her  clear  eyes  ever  on  the  alert 
for  the  business  before  the  house.  She  sat  there,  the  unsolicited,  self-appointed 
guardian  of  the  laws  for  Kansas  women.  She  was  poor,  yet  asked  no  pay  and  never 
received  any,  yet  every  woman  in  the  State  of  Kansas  to-day  is  somewhat  in  her 
debt  for  our  liberal  laws — for  the  rights  and  privileges  of  holding  property,  trans- 
acting business  in  their  own  name,  and  participating  in  the  elections  and  offices 
under  our  school  system  in  advance  of  the  constitutions  of  other  States.  She 
asked  :  (1.)  Equal  educational  privileges  in  all  the  colleges  and  institutions  of  learn- 
ing fostered  and  controlled  by  the  State.  (2.)  Equal  rights  in  the  formation  and 
conduct  of  the  common  schools.  (3.)  An  equal  right  for  the  mothers  with  the 
fathers  to  the  custody  and  control  of  their  offspring.  (4.)  The  right  of  the  wife  to 
hold  and  accumulate  property,  and  sue  and  be  sued,  as  if  sole.  No  other  State  has, 
so  far  as  we  can  learn,  the  provision  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  wife  to  sue  in  defense 
of  the  common  property,  or  "  community  fund."  For  want  of  such  provision,  wives 
have  been  compelled  in  other  States,  to  have  guardians  appointed  over  insane  hus- 
bands to  defend  interests,  which  they  were  competent  to  protect  without  such  expen- 
diture. *  *  *  This  appeal  for  constitutional  provisions,  defining  and  specifying, 
was  a  novel  and  successful  method  of  securing  permanent  measures,  which  no  leg- 
islative body  could  repeal.  Two  years  later,  Mrs.  Nichols  discovered  a  law  specify- 
ing that,  in  the  settlement  of  an  estate,  the  widow  should  have  one-third,  provided 
she  did  not  elect  to  take,  under  the  provisions  of  an  earlier  date,  one-half.  She  also 
found  a  law  giving  the  property  of  a  child,  who  should  die  without  a  will,  to  the 
father  if  living;  if  he  were  dead  the  brothers  and  sisters  took  the  property  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  mother.     These  two  facts  she  wrote  out,  and  sent  them  for  publi- 

*Held  at  Wyandotte,  Kansas,  July  1859,  to  prepare  the  Constitution,  under  which  Kansas 
desired  to  enter  the  Union  as  a  State. 


364  International  Council  of  Women. 

cation  in  the  Topeka  Commonwealth  and  the  "Wyandotte  Gazette.  Both  laws  were 
amended  by  the  next  legislature.  You  have  not  time  to  hear  of  the  hours  of  pains- 
taking labor  she  gave;  or  the  slights,  rebuffs,  and  mortifications  she  endured  as 
a  self-appointed  delegate  to  a  convention  that  had  not  wanted  her— for  the  sake  of 
the  women  who  did  not  know  they  wanted  more  than  they  had  I    *    * .   * 

Not  long  since,  the  tireless  worker  for  the  world  fell  asleep.  Her  memory  will 
be  kept  green  by  all  who  knew  and  loved  her.  The  majority  of  Kansas  women 
have  never  heard  her  name.  To  most  of  you  it  is  to-day  heard  for  the  first  time. 
Yet  she  was  one  of  the  brave  army  of  pioneers  which  forty  years  ago  began  the 
work  which  makes  this  Convention  possible  today;  which  has  gained  for  women 
recognition  in  wages,  in  work,  in  schools  and  colleges.  It  is  the  hands  of  the  tireless, 
faithful  pioneers,  that  have  made  the  path  smooth  for  our  daughters.  It  is  because 
they  braved  rebuff  and  sneer  and  scorn  and  falsehood,  that  this  Convention  is  to-day 
considered  respectable.  Their  hearts  have  ached,  their  nights  been  sleepless,  their 
paths  rough  that  to-day's  success  has  been  achieved.  God  give  them  happiness  and 
long  life — God  bless  the  pioneers. 

Happy  Thought  Cottage,  North  Adams,  Mass.,  March  19,  1888. 
To  the  Pioneer  Advocates  of  Suffrage  for  Women,  in  Conference  Assembled: 

Dear  Friends:  I  regret  very  much  my  inability  to  be  with  you  at  your  gathering. 
I  know  of  no  other  movement,  having  in  view  the  amelioration  of  mankind,  with 
which  for  forty  years  I  have  been  in  such  sympathy,  and  to  which,  with  my  own 
approval,  I  have  been  so  strongly  linked,  as  to  that  for  the  emancipation  and  enfran- 
chisement of  woman.  *  *  *  Woman  is  entitled  to  have  her  humanhood  and  not 
her  sexhood  acknowledged  by  public  opinion,  by  custom,  by  social  observance,  by 
fashion,  by  religious  influence,  by  law,  and  by  all  the  authority  of  the  State  as  the 
predominating  and  guiding  force  for  the  evolvement,  education,  and  culture  of  her 
personality  *  *  *  Dear  friends,  may  you  whose  heads  are  whitening  under 
time's  bleaching,  have  a  pleasant  and  profitable  conference.  How  in  memory  I  go 
back  to  the  day  when  I  read  the  call  and  subsequently  the  proceedings  of  that  gather- 
ing you  are  commemorating!  *  *  *  I  saw  clearly  then,  what  a  prolonged  con- 
test would  have  to  be  waged,  in  order  to  do  away  with  the  crime  of  woman's  enslave- 
ment, and  I  do  urge  upon  you  who  have  gone  through  the  conflicts  since  that  day, 
to  impress  upon  those  who  will  take  up  the  work  when  you  have  done  with  it,  these 
ideas:  (1.)  That  woman  is  human,  and  therefore  human  rights  belong  to  her.  (2.) 
That  her  rights  can  not  be  justly  qualified  to  man's  advantage  and  to  her  disad- 
vantage, because  of  any  difference  between  his  physical  and  her  physical  organiza- 
tion. (3.)  That  her  rights,  originating  in  her  personality,  as  do  his  in  his  personal- 
ity, rest  on  the  same  basis  as  do  his,  and  that  therefore  they  must  in  the  end,  stand 
or  fall  together.  (4.)  Urge  upon  them  that  they  courageously  claim  to  be  acknowl- 
edged by  constitutional  and  statutory  authority,  to  be  equal  with  men  before  the  law 
eveiywhere. 

I  am  your  fellow-citizen,  James  C.  Jackson'. 

Miss  Anthony.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  B.  Chase,  of  Rhode  Island,  who  up  to 
the  last  moment  expected  to  be  with  us  to-day,  sent  us  the  following  tribute 
to  one  of  our  earliest  and  ablest  advocates  of  equal  rights  for  all : 

The  death  of  Abby  Kelly  Foster,  which  occurred  less  than  eighteen  months  ago, 
has  removed  from  our  midst  one  of  the  most  remarkable  women  of  the  nineteenth 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  365 

century.  And  yet,  in  the  present  generation,  there  are,  doubtless,  many  persons 
even  among  active,  intelligent  women  who  know  very  little  of  the  life  she  lived  and 
the  work  she  accomplished  in  the  interests  of  humanity. 

The  opening  years  of  the  anti-slavery  conflict,  led  by  William  Lloyd  Garrison 
and  his  few  adherents,  found  her  a  modest,  quiet,  Quaker  maiden,  conscientiously 
performing  her  duties  as  the  teacher  of  a  Monthly  Meeting  school  for  "Friends'  " 
children,  in  the  town  of  Lynn,  Mass.  She  read  the  thrilling  pages  of  the  Liberator 
and  listened  to  the  impassioned  speeches  of  the  early  advocates  of  immediate  eman- 
cipation, until  the  iron  of  the  slave-holding  system  entered  into  her  soul  never 
to  be  withdrawn  until  the  last  fetter  was  broken.  With  a  clear  insight  she  saw 
what  statesmen  and  theologians  failed  to  perceive,  that  slavery  in  this  land  was  the 
Nation's  guilt,  and  that  the  supporters  of  the  system  were  the  whole  people,  while 
the  American  Church,  by  its  silence,  by  its  fellowship,  by  its  defenses  and  apolo- 
gies, was  the  stronghold  of  this  great  iniquity.  The  hammer  on  the  auction-block, 
the  clank  of  the  slave's  chain,  and  the  slave-mother's  cry,  sounded  ever  in  her  ears; 
and  her  conscience,  alive  to  the  slightest  intimation  of  wrong-doing,  bade  her  wash 
her  own  hands  clean  of  this  foulest  of  stains.  Listening  to  the  inner  voice  she  be- 
gan her  labor  in  the  cause  of  the  slave  by  devoting  half  her  salary  to  its  service. 
But  ere  long,  impelled  by  an  impulse  she  could  not  resist,  she  gave  up  her  school 
and  went  forth,  single-handed  and  alone,  to  raise  her  voice  in  earnest  pleading  be- 
fore all  the  people,  that  they  should  let  the  slaves  go  free.  Long  afterward,  in 
relating  her  experience,  in  a  private  conversation,  I  heard  her  say:  "It  was  as 
though  I  saw  my  neighbor's  house  in  flames  and  knew  that  the  lives  of  the  children 
were  in  peril.     I  should  rush  into  the  street  and  cry  '  Are  !  fire  ! '  and  do  all  that  lay 

in  my  power  for  their  rescue.  So  it  was  when  I  heard  the  cries  of  the  slave." 
*    *    * 

But  the  pulpit  and  the  press  were  against  her.  First,  because  she  was  a  woman, 
and,  second,  because  she  attacked  the  slave  system  with  the  faithfulness  of  the 
prophet  Nathan,  who  declared  to  the  erring  king  of  Israel,  "  Thou  art  the  man." 
Mobs  assailed  her.  Scandal  sought  to  crush  her.  No  epithets  were  too  vile  to  be 
cast  upon  her  by  New  England  respectability.  The  Society  of  Friends  disowned 
her.  Had  the  Puritan  methods  of  persecution  prevailed  at  that  time,  she  would  have 
shared  with  the  early  Quaker  women  in  Massachusetts,  scourgings,  imprisonment, 
and,  perhaps,  death  on  the  gallows.  But  there  are  tortures  more  keen  and  bitter 
than  bodily  inflictions,  and  these  fell  thick  and  fast  on  her  devoted  head.  *  *  * 
But  she  had  a  high  and  holy  mission,  and  she  pursued  it  cheerfully  and  bravely, 
seldom  speaking  of  the  obstacles  in  her  way.  *  *  *  When  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society  needed  a  printing-press,  and  was  otherwise  in  peril  for  lack  of  funds, 
Abby  Kelly,  who  had  received  from  her  mother  a  legacy  of  a  thousand  dollars, 
poured  it  all  into  the  treasury  of  the  society,  being  glad  that  she  had  it  to  bestow. 
For  many  years  she  made  it  a  part  of  her  duty  to  collect  the  money  by  which  the 
society  was  largely  supported,  asking  nothing  for  herself  and  her  incessant  labors. 
After  her  marriage  to  Stephen  S.  Foster,  who  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  power  as 
an  anti-slavery  orator,  and  had  almost  suffered  martyrdom  in  the  cause,  she  left  her 
public  work  temporarily  to  become  the  most  exact  and  careful  of  home-makers. 
No  household  duty  was  ever  neglected  in  that  home,  and  the  hospitality  exercised 
by  her  husband  and  herself,  included  not  only  a  large  circle  of  friends,  but  welcomed 

and  protected  the  flying  fugitive  from  bondage. 

When  her  only  child  was  old  enough  to  be  entrusted  to  another's  care,  she  took 

her  to  New  Hampshire  to  her  husband's  sister,  and  with  a  heart  almost  breaking  at 


366  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  separation,  she  went  forth  again  on  the  mission  to  which  she  believed  herself 
called.  On  her  journey  homeward  she  met  a  friend,  who  exclaimed:  "  How  can 
you  leave  your  baby  to  go  out  again  lecturing?  "  And  she  replied,  almost  choking 
with  emotion:  "  For  the  sake  of  the  mothers  who  are  robbed  of  all  their  children." 
For  many  years,  she  alternated  between  her  domestic  duties  and  attendance  upon 
anti-slavery  meetings,  often  traveling  with  her  husband  in  such  service.  When  the 
war  came,  and  the  abolition  of  slavery  became  a  military  necessity,  and  was  thus 
wiped  out  in  blood,  no  one  rejoiced  more  than  she,  while  entirely  disapproving  of 
war,  from  which  she,  and  all  other  Abolitionists,  would  gladly  have  saved  our 
nation,  would  the  nation  have  listened  to  their  appeals  and  followed  their  counsels. 

The  women  of  this  land  owe  to  this  woman  more  than  to  any  other  human  being, 
a  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  doors  she  opened  for  them  to  enter;  for  the  courage  and 
the  conscientiousness  with  which,  amid  persecution  and  reviling,  she  made  the  way 
clear  for  them  to  walk  safely,  where  she  encountered  what  to  them  would  seem 
insurmountable  difficulties.  Her  sympathies  and  her  strong  influence  were  given  to 
all  reforms — temperance,  social  purity,  woman  suffrage,  and  whatever  conduces  to 
human  welfare,  and  to  all  she  contributed  the  uncompromising  support  of  her  earnest, 
unwavering  spirit.     Let  her  name  stand  high  on  our  record  of  love  and  honor. 

Boston,  March  23,  1888. 

My  Dear  Lucy  Stone:  *  *  *  It  has  happened  that  I  did  not  see,  until  now, 
that  among  the  features  of  the  International  Council,  is  to  be  a  gathering  of  the 
pioneers  upon  the  platform.  I  have  grieved  to  be  unable  to  share  in  the  delibera- 
tions and  profits  of  the  Council  personally.  But  I  feel  as  if  it  were  almost  to  lose 
my  identity,  altogether,  not  to  be  named  among  you  as  one  of  the  early  Ohio  workers, 
and  one  of  the  "  present  and  accounted  for,"  at  the  Massillon,  Syracuse,  and  Cleve- 
land conventions,  as  well  as  standard-bearer  of  the  cause  on  the  lecture  platforms 
of  Cleveland,  Boston,  and  other  cities.  *  *  *  Therefore,  I  wish  now  simply  to 
be  counted  in  among  those  of  the  dear  old  friends  who  survive,  as  they  all  do,  I  am 
sure,  "  here  or  there,"  to  dream  that  I  feel  the  old-time  thrill  of  the  hand-clasp,  the 
magnetism  of  the  kindred  aim,  and  catch  the  "all  hail"  of  the  later  recruits,  and 
bid  them  the  heartiest  "  God-speed; "  and  so  be  on  record  once  more  among  the 
faithful  before  I  go  hence. 

Faithfully  yours,  Caroline  M.  Severance. 

164  West  Forty-Fifth  Street,  New  York,  March  17,  1888. 
Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony : 

Dear  Friend  :  Feeble  health  will  plead  my  excuse  for  not  attending  the  Inter- 
national Council,  but  it  must  not  hinder  me  from  sending  you  my  warm  congratu- 
lations. I  may  fairly  account  myself  among  the  few  who  welcomed  the  Conven- 
tion of  1848,  and  who  saw  in  it  the  beginning  of  one  of  the  grandest  revolutions  in 
the  history  of  the  human  race.  In  the  conflict  for  the  admission  of  women  to  full 
participation  in  the  anti-slavery  societies,  a  few  years  earlier,  I  had  taken  an  active 
part,  and  calm  reflection  upon  the  principles  involved  in  that  issue,  led  me  to  see 
that  there  could  be  no  middle  ground  between  the  conventionalism  of  that  period 
in  respect  to  woman,  and  her  admission  to  the  exercise  of  every  political  right.  I 
was  therefore  prepared  to  respond  fully  and  promptly  to  the  demands  made  at  Seneca 
Falls,  and,  in  spite  of  the  ridicule  heaped  upon  the  convention  and  its  authors,  I 
published  the  proceedings  in  the  newspaper  *  then  under  my  care.     *    *    * 

*  The  Anti-Slare?T/  Bugle,  at  Salem,  Ohio. 


Conference  of  the  Pioneers.  367 

God  bless  the  brave  and  noble  workers,  every  one,  say  I,  and  give  them  the  cour- 
age and  patience  to  carry  on  their  cause  to  its  final  triumph.  The  welfare  and 
advancement  of  our  common  humanity,  and  the  glory  of  the  Republic,  are  involved 
in  it.  The  struggle  has  proved  longer  and  harder  than  I  anticipated,  but  the  end. 
on  that  account,  will  be  all  the  more  glorious. 

Yours,  in  hope  and  confidence,  Oliver  Johnson. 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  March  17,  1888. 

Dear  Miss  Anthony  :  Absence  from  home  has  delayed  my  reply  to  your  letter. 
Thank  you  for  your  invitation  to  the  celebration  at  Washington,  but  I  shall  be  so 
•engaged  at  that  time  that  it  will  be  out  of  my  power  to  attend.  Those  who  took 
part  in  the  early  convention  have  certainly  seen  great  results  follow.  In  regard  to 
education  and  general  legislation,  the  greater  part  of  that  for  which  we  asked,  has 
been  gained.  In  regard  to  woman  suffrage,  the  progress  has  been  slower,  as  was 
natural;  yet  this  progress  has  been  constantly  accelerated,  so  that  the  last  ten  years 
have  shown  more  visible  results  than  the  previous  thirty.  Equal  suffrage  for  the 
sexes  is,  in  my  judgment,  a  necessary  part  of  the  evolution  of  human  society.  I 
expect  that  it  will  be  attended,  like  all  the  great  enlargements  of  the  suffrage,  by 
temporary  mistakes,  inconveniences,  and  drawbacks,  as  well  as  by  great  and 
permanent  benefits.  But  it  is  as  sure  to  come  as  is  the  earth  to  roll  round  on  its 
axis. 

Yours  very  truly,  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson. 

From  one  of  the  originators  of  Sorosis,  and,  next  to  the 
sainted  Alice  Cary,  its  first  president — Mrs.  Charlotte  B.  Wil- 
bonr,  now  residing  in  Paris. 

My  Dear  Miss  Anthony:  The  invitation  which  I  have  just  read  induces  retro- 
spection, excusable  in  one  who  distinctly  remembers  the  convention  to  which  this 
Council  offers  an  anniversary.  For  I  am  no  convert  to  the  faith  of  the  equality  of 
the  sexes  before  the  law,  or  to  the  larger  possibilities  of  our  woman  nature.  No,  I 
was  born  in  the  church,  of  parents  who  recognized  my  right  to  be  all  that  the  human 
being,  man  or  woman,  may  be,  without  legal  hindrance.  My  birth  membership  of 
the  meeting  may  explain  the  fact  that  I  am  so  much  a  laggard  in  the  rear  of  the 
army,  but  I  always  note  with  pride  and  satisfaction  the  efficient  zeal  of  the  converts, 
and  often  ask  if  they  are  not  the  more  fortunate  of  the  crusaders.  Born  for  to-day,  after 
the  old-fashioned  stiles  and  fences  have  been,  perhaps,  clumsily  jostled  down,  but 
levelled,  nevertheless,  and  the  practical  results  of  agitation,  protestation,  and  path- 
making  have  been  achieved,  and  the  old  methods  recorded  for  the  warning,  sugges- 
tion, and  encouragement  of  these  better  educated  and  more  evenly  cultivated  women 
of  this  hour. 

The  brave  philanthropy  of  the  justice-seeking  women  of  the  Seneca  Falls  Conven- 
tion of  1848  will  receive  the  grateful  recognition  of  the  independent  workers  in 
departments  of  labor  and  skilled  service  conquered  for  women  since  that  date. 
The  women  of  1888  have  come  out  of  their  rose  gardens  to  pay  their  willing  tribute 
to  the  grafters  and  seed-sowers  of  1848  ! 

In  this  land  of  Egypt,  country  of  degraded  women,  the  elevation  of  our  American 
women  seems  so  great  that  my  hands  lift  themselves  in  amazement  at  a  contrast  so 
terrible,  and  my  heart  is  filled  with  rejoicing  and  exaltation  as  I  number  the  steps 
that  even  forty  years  of  faithful  effort  have  cut  in  the  stony  mountain  of  error  an^ 
prejudice.     In  accepting  invitations  from  the  officials  of  Upper  Egypt,  my  daughte 

r 


368  International  Council  of  Women. 

and  I  make  request  to  be  presented  to  the  ladies  of  the  harem,  and  the  majority  of 
them  say  to  us  that  they  never  before  conversed  with  foreign  ladies.  We  find  it 
very  difficult  to  select  subjects  for  conversation  of  which  they  know  anything.  The 
atmosphere  of  custom  and  religion  is  too  heavy  for  the  white  wings  of  the  bearer  of 
glad  tidings  of  good-will  to  women.  The  black  mantle  of  the  prophet  adorns  the 
man  and  is  the  funeral-pall  of  the  woman. 

But  to  my  country  I  turn  in  hope  and  cry,  all  hail  to  the  breaking  day  in  the  new 
land,  where  the  men  and  women  shall  stand  together  in  religion,  in  society,  in  the 
family,  and  in  the  State. 

And  while  you,  my  good  sisters,  are  hastening  on  this  day  of  equality,  I  say  God 
speed  you. 

Charlotte  B.  Wilbouk. 
On  the  Nile,  Upper  Egypt,  Africa. 

Mathilde  F.  Wendt  sends  from  New  York  her  greetings  to 

the  Council,  and  begs  that  the  work  of  Madame  Anneke  may 

be  remembered,  since  it  was  she  who  contributed  so  much  to 

the   German   Revolution  of  1848.     In  that  year  Carl  Schurz 

and   this    brave    woman,   forced   to   leave   their    Fatherland, 

sought  in  America  the  freedom  denied  them  at  home.     To 

him,  our  nation  opened  the  way  to  every  honor,  save  only  the 

ighest;  to  her  it  denied  even  the  exercise  of  the  natural  right 

of  self-government.* 

*  For  Madame  Anneke  see  "  History  of  Woman  Suffrage."    Vol.  I.,  571 ;  Vol.  II.,  374  ; 
393  ;  Vol.  III.,  646. 


rrt?' 


SATURDAY,  MARCH  31,  1888. 

EVENING  SESSION. 
POLITICAL     CONDITIONS. 

Invocation  by  Mrs.  Ormiston  Chant. 

Mrs.  Stanton.  The  first  speaker  of  the  evening  is  Helen  Gardener,  who 
is  to  give  us  an  address  on  the  Brain.  You  know  the  last  stronghold  of  the 
enemy  is  scientific  ;  men  have  decided  that  we  must  not  enter  the  colleges 
and  study  very  hard  ;  must  not  have  the  responsibility  of  government  laid 
on  our  heads,  because  our  brains  weigh  much  less  than  the  brains  of  men. 
Dr.  Hammond,  of  New  York,  has  published  several  very  elaborate  articles 
in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  to  prove  this  fact.  But  Miss  Gardener  has 
spent  about  fourteen  months  in  investigation,  and  has  conferred  with  twenty 
able  specialists  upon  the  subject,  and  will  give  us  to-night  the  result  of  her 
investigation.  She  will  show  to  us  that  it  is  impossible  to  prove  any  of  the 
positions  that  Dr.  Hammond  has  maintained. 

SEX    IN    BRAIN. 

Helen  Gardener.  The  political  conditions  of  woman  are  very  greatly 
influenced  to-day  by  what  is  taught  to  her  and  about  her  by  those  two  con- 
servative moulders  of  public  opinion — clergymen  and  physicians.  Our  law- 
makers have  long  since  ceased  to  merely  sneer  at  the  simple  claim  of  human 
rights  by  one-half  of  humanity,  and  for  refuge  they  have  flown  to  priest  and 
practitioner,  who  do  not  fail  them  in  this  their  hour  of  great  tribulation.  It 
is  true  that  men,  most  of  whom  never  enter  a  church,  have  grown  somewhat 
ashamed  to  press  the  theological  arguments  against  the  equality  of  the  sexes, 
and  to  these  the  medical  argument  has  become  an  ever-present  help  in  their 
time  of  trouble. 

In  the  early  days  woman  was  under  the  absolute  sway  of  club  and  fist. 
Then  came  censer  and  gown,  swinging  hell  in  the  perfumed  depths  of  the 
one  and  hiding  in  the  folds  of  the  other  thumb-screw  and  fagot  for  the 
woman  who  dared  to  think.  At  last  the  theory  of  the  primal  curse  upon  her 
head  has  grown  weaker.  Mankind  struggles  to  be  less  brutal  and  more  just. 
Manly  men  are  beginning  to  blush  when  they  hear  repeated  the  well-worn 
fable  of  the  fall  of  man  through  woman's  crime  and  her  inferiority  of  posi- 
tion and  opportunity,  justified  by  priest  and  pleader,  because  of  legends  in- 
herited from  barbarians — mental  deformities  worthy  of  their  parentage. 

When  religious  influence  and  dogma  began  to  close  their  terrors,  legal  en- 
actments were  slowly  modified  in  woman's  favor  and  hell  went  out  of  fashion. 
Then  Conservatism,  Ignorance,  and  Egotism,  in  dismay  and  terror,  took 
counsel  together  and  called  in  medical  science,  still  in  its  infanc  y,  to  aid  in 


370  International  Council  of  Women. 

staying  the  march  of  progress  which  is  inevitable  to  civilization  and  so  neces- 
sary to  anything  like  a  real  republic.  Equality  of  opportunity  began  to  be 
denied  to  woman,  for  the  first  time,  upon  natural  and  so-called  scientific 
grounds.  She  was  pronounced  physically  and  mentally  incapable,  because 
of  certain  anatomical  conditions,  and  she  must  be  prevented — for  her  own 
good  and  that  of  the  race  here — from  competition  with  her  mental  and 
physical  superiors. 

It  was  no  longer  her  soul,  but  her  body,  that  needed  saving  from  herself. 
Her  thirst  for  knowledge  the  clergy  declared  had  already  damned  the  souls 
of  a  very  large  majority  of  mankind — in  a  hereafter  known  only  to  them. 
The  same  vicious  tendency,  the  doctors  echoed,  will  be  the  ruin  of  the 
physical  bodies  of  the  race  in  this  world,  as  we  are  prepared  to  prove.  The 
case  began  to  look  hopeless  again.  Opportunity  must  be  denied,  these  doc- 
tors say,  because  capacity  does  not  exist.  Where  capacity  seems  to  exist,  it 
is,  it  must  be,  at  the  expense  of  individual  health  and  future  maternal  capa- 
bilities. 

As  a  person,  she  has  no  status  with  these  consistent  believers  in  "equal 
rights  to  all  mankind."  As  a  potential  mother  only,  can  she  hope  for  con- 
sideration either  by  religious  or  medical  theorist.  This  has  been  a  difficult 
combination  to  meet.  Few  who  cared  to  contest  their  verdict,  possessed  the 
bravery  to  fearlessly  face  the  religious  dictators,  and  fewer  still  had  the  ana- 
tomical and  anthropological  information  to  risk  a  fight  on  a  field  which  as- 
sumed to  be  held  by  those  who  based  all  of  their  arguments  upon  scientific 
facts,  collected  by  microscope  and  scales  and  reduced  to  unanswerable  sta- 
tistics. 

The  priest,  reinforced  by  the  doctor,  promised  a  long  and  bitter  struggle, 
on  new  grounds,  to  those  who  fought  for  simple  justice  to  the  individual, 
aside  from  her  sex  relations  ;  who  wished  for  neither  malediction  nor  mercy ; 
those  who  claim  only  the  right  of  a  unit  to  enjoy  the  common  heritage  un- 
trammeled  by  superstition  and  artificial  difficulties.  They  do  not  ask  to  be 
helped — only  not  to  be  hindered.  They  had  hailed  science  as  their  friend 
and  ally  ;  and  behold,  pseudo-science  adopted  theories,  invented  statistics, 
and  published  personal  prejudices  as  demonstrated  fact.  All  this  has  done  a 
vast  deal  of  harm  to  the  cause  of  woman. 

Educators,  theorists,  and  politicians  readily  accept  the  data  and  statistics 
of  prominent  physicians,  and,  in  good  faith,  make  them  a  basis  of  action. while 
the  victims  of  their  misinformation  have  been  helpless.  It  is,  therefore,  very 
important  to  learn,  if  possible,  just  how  far  medical  science  and  anthropology 
have  really  discovered  demonstrable  natural  sex  differences  in  the  brains  of 
men  and  women,  and  how  far  the  usual  theories  advanced  are  gratuitous 
assumptions,  founded  upon  legend  and  fed  by  mental  habit  and  personal 
egotism. 

I  began  an  investigation  into  this  matter  a  little  while  ago  by  questioning 


Political  Conditions.  371 

the  arguments  and  logic  of  the  medical  pseudo-scientists  from  their  own  basis 
of  facts.  I  ended  by  questioning  the  facts  themselves,  upon  the  evidence 
furnished  me  by  leading  members  of  the  profession,  some  of  whom  are  known 
in  this  country  and  abroad  as  leaders  in  original  investigation  as  brain  stu- 
dents and  anatomists.  None  of  these  gentlemen  knew  the  aim  or  motive  of 
my  inquiries,  and  they  gave  me  all  the  information  to  be  had  on  this  subject 
without  bias  and  quite  freely.  The  specialists  and  brain  students  to  whom 
my  questions  were  submitted,  were  of  widely  different  religious  beliefs,  which, 
of  course,  colored  their  theories  as  well  as  their  motives,  either  consciously 
or  unconsciously. 

But  the  profession  has  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  ability  of  most  of  these  men, 
no  less  than  of  their  sincerity  and  willingness  to  confess  to  ignorance  of  facts 
where  proof  was  lacking.  The  abler  the  man  the  more  willing  was  he  to  do  this. 
One  or  two  tried  to  explain,  and,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  to  force  an  agreement 
between  scientific  facts  which  they  did  possess,  and  their  inherited  belief  in 
"revelation."  Others,  who  did  not  themselves  recognize  it,  performed  the 
same  mental  gymnastics  from  mere  force  of  habit,  and  gave  a  black  eye  to 
their  facts  in  preserving  a  blind  eye  to  their  faith.  But  in  the  following  re- 
sults are  to  be  found  the  opinions  of  eminent  medical  men,  some  of  whom 
are  Roman  Catholic,  some  Protestant,  and  some  of  the  negative  systems  of  re- 
ligion. So  far  as  I  know,  not  one  is  a  believer  in  "Woman  Suffrage,"  nor 
even  in  the  more  radical  but  less  comprehensive  measures  for  her  development. 
Not  one,  who  touched  directly  upon  the  subject,  believed  in  sex  equality  in  its 
entirety  or  had  not  personal  prejudice  and  long-cherished  sentiments  opposed 
to  it,  if  his  reason  approved.  By  some  of  them  this  was  frankly  stated,  even 
while  giving  facts  in  her  favor.  Not  more  than  one,  so  far  as  I  know,  is 
"agnostic  "  in  religion  or  a  believer  in  evolution  in  its  entirety. 

I  have  mentioned  these  latter  points,  because  I  found  in  this  line  of  inves- 
tigation, as  in  all  others,  that  a  man's  religious  leanings  inevitably  color 
and  modify  all  of  his  opinions,  and  govern  his  entire  mental  outlook.  They 
iven  add  bitterness  to  his  "  jalop"  and  fizz  in  his  "  seltzer."  If  he  abso- 
lutely believe  in  the  "  Garden  of  Eden  "  story  he  deals  with  "Adam  "  as  a 
:reature  after  "  God's  own  heart  and  in  his  image,"  and  therefore  capable 
ind  deserving  of  all  opportunity  and  development  for  and  because  of  him- 
self, and  to  promote  his  own  happiness.  "Eve,"  of  course,  receives  due 
ittention  as  a  physical,  anatomical  specimen,  "with  intuitions" — a  mere 
>one  or  rib  of  contention,  as  it  were,  between  man  and  man.  The  more 
>rthodox  the  man  the  bonier  the  rib.  The  more  literal  and  consistent  his 
faith  the  less  likely  is  he  to  deal  with  woman  as  an  intellectual  being,  capable 
)f  and  entitled  to  the  same  or  as  liberal,  mental,  social,  and  financial  oppor- 
tunities or  rights  as  are  universally  conceded  to  be  the  birthright  of  man, 
ind  quite  beyond  farther  controversy  in  his  case.  Evidence  in  her  favor 
lust  be  overwhelming,  indeed,  then,  which  can  not  be  evaded  if  an  inves- 


372  International  Council  of  Women. 

tigator  starts  out  handicapped  with  the  theory  of  "  revelation"  as  a  part  ot 
his  mental  equipment,  and  with  the  "  sphere  of  woman  "  formulated  for  him 
by  the  ancient  Hebrews. 

I  went  to  the  men  whom  the  doctors  themselves  told  me  were  the  best 
authority  to  be  found  on  the  subject  of  brain  anatomy  and  microscopy.  One 
of  these  men,  Dr.  E.  C.  Spitzka,  of  New  York,  was  referred  to  by  physicians 
of  all  schools  of  practice  as  undoubtedly  the  best  informed  man  in  America, 
and  second  to  none  in  the  world,  in  this  branch  of  the  profession.  They, 
one  and  all,  told  me  that  what  he  could  not  tell  me  himseif  on  this  subject, 
or  could  not  tell  me  where  to  find,  could  not  be  of  the  slightest  importance. 

I  have  been  asked  to  tell  you  just  what  I  started  out  to  learn,  and  how  far 
I  succeeded.  But  before  I  do  this  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  tell  you  an 
anecdote  of  my  experience  in  this  undertaking  :  I  went  personally  to  about 
twenty  of  the  leading  physicians  of  New  York  with  my  questions.  I  had 
them  submitted  in  other  ways  to  many  more  in  this  and  other  cities.  I  got 
written  communications  from  the  Old  World  as  well  as  the  New.  Nearly 
every  one  of  these  twenty,  after  very  kindly  telling  me  what  he  himself  knew 
and  what  he  believed  on  the  subject,  referred  me  to  the  same  man  as  the  final 
appeal ;  but  not  one  of  them  was  willing  to  introduce  me  to  him.  They 
would  introduce  me  to  anybody  and  everybody  else,  but  they  did  not  like  to 
risk  sending  me  to  him.  He  was,  they  said,  utterly  impatient  of  ignorance, 
and  might  treat  me  with  scant  courtesy.  He  would  very  likely  tell  me  flatly 
that  he  could  not  waste  time  on  so  trivial  a  matter — that  I  and  everybody 
else  ought  to  know  all  about  "  sex  in  brain." 

Now,  this  is  a  secret — I  would  not  have  it  get  out  for  a  good  deal.  It 
took  me  a  long  while  to  get  my  courage  up  to  go  to  that  man  without  an  in- 
troduction— a  thing  I  did  not  do  with  any  of  the  others.  I  finally,  with  fear 
and  trembling,  made  up  my  mind  to  learn  what  he  knew  on  this  subject  or 
perish  in  the  attempt.  So  I  took  my  life  in  my  hands,  put  on  my  best 
gown — I  had  previously  discovered  that  even  brain  anatomists  are  subject  to 
the  spell  of  good  clothes — and  went.  I  fully  expected  to  be  reduced  to 
mere  pulp  before  I  left ;  but  he  listened  quite  patiently,  asked  me  a  few  ques- 
tions as  to  why  I  had  come  to  him  ;  told  me  to  read  him  my  questions  ; 
asked  me  sharply,  "  Who  wrote  those  questions?"  I  said  meekly,  "  I  did." 
He  looked  at  me  critically,  wrote  something  on  a  card,  and  dismissed  me. 
1  was  uncertain  whether,  he  had  been  so  kind  in  his  manner,  because  he  con- 
sidered me  a  harmless  lunatic  or  not.  Once  in  the  street  I  read  the  card. 
I  was  to  call  again  when  he  could  give  me  more  time. 

I  went  not  once,  but  many  times.  I  devoted  some  months  to  brain  anat- 
omy and  anthropology.  In  his  laboratory  he  had  brains  from  those  of  a 
mouse  to  those  of  the  largest  whale  on  record.  He  showed  me  the  peculiar- 
ities of  brains  as  shown  by  microscope  and  scales.  He  looked  up  points  in 
foreign  journals  to  which  I  had  not  access.     In  short,  he  did  all  he  could  to 


Political  Conditions.  373 

aid  me  ;  and  he  said  that  no  such  investigation  as  I  was  trying  to  learn  about 
had  ever  yet  been  made,  although  no  fair  record  of  the  difference  of  sex  in 
brain,  of  which  we  hear  so  much,  could  possibly  be  made  without  it.  He 
was  delightfully  frank,  earnest,  and  thoroughly  honest.  He  knew — and, 
what  is  better,  he  was  willing  to  tell — where  knowledge  stopped  and  guessing 
began;  a  point  sadly  confused,  I  found,  by  even  prominent  members  of  the 
profession.  "  I  do  not  know,"  was  a  hard  sentence  to  get  from  a  doctor  so 
long  as  he  was  under  the  impression  that  others  of  his  profession  would 
know.  "  I  do  not  know  ;  nobody  knows,"  came  freely  enough  from  the 
man  who  was  sure  of  the  boundaries  of  investigation,  who  recognized  the 
vast  difference  between  theories  and  proof.  From  him,  and  through  him,  I 
collected  material  that  is  of  intense  interest  and  importance  to  woman  in  this 
stage  of  the  movement  for  her  elevation. 

It  is  only  right  that  I  say  here  that  I  am  of  opinion  that  he  does  not  him- 
self believe  in  the  equality  of  the  sexes,  but  he  is  too  thoroughly  scientific 
to  allow  his  hereditary  bias  to  color  his  statements  of  facts  on  this  or  any 
subject.  In  the  hands  of  a  man  who  has  arrived  at  that  point  of  mental 
poise  and  dignity,  our  case  is  safe,  no  matter  what  his  sentiments  may  be. 
Such  men  do  not  go  to  their  emotions  for  premises  when  it  comes  to  a  state- 
ment of  scientific  facts.  There  are  writers  on  this  subject  who  do.  As 
you  all  know,  any  statement  calmly  and  persistently  made  is  reasonably  sure 
to  be  accepted  as  true,  even  by  its  victims.  Frequency  of  iteration  passes 
as  proof. 

Even  thoughtful  men,  after  spending  years  of  time  in  trying  to  explain 
why  a  thing  is  true,  often  end  with  the  discovery  that  it  is  not  true,  after  all. 
We  are  all  familiar  with  the  story  of  the  wrangle  of  the  philosophers  as  to 
why  a  vessel  containing  water  weighed  no  more  with  a  fish  weighing  a  pound 
in  it  than  it  did  after  the  fish  was  removed.  After  long  and  acrimonious 
debate  over  the  principle  of  philosophy  involved,  some  one  bethought  him 
to  weigh  them,  and,  of  course,  discovered  that  no  unfamiliar  principle  was 
involved,  since  it  was  a  simple  misstatement  as  to  facts. 

The  assumption  of  "  divine  rights  "  by  kings  and  priests  stood  as  unques- 
tioned facts  for  centuries  by  those  who  'vere  the  victims  of  both.  The 
"  divine  right  "  of  men  rests  still  on  the  same  bare-faced  fraud,  and  is  sim- 
ply the  last  of  this  interesting  trinity  to  die,  and  it  naturally  dies  hard,  as 
its  fellows  did.  If  a  charlatan  loudly  asserts  that  he  can  do  a  certain  thing, 
no  matter  how  unlikely  that  thing  is,  if  he  insists  that  he  has  done  it  often, 
he  will  find  many  believers  who  will  spend  much  time  in  an  attempt  to  ex- 
plain how  he  does  it,  while  only  the  few  will  think  to  question  first  if  he 
does  it. 

Upon  this  basis  of  calm  assumption  on  the  one  side,  and  credulous  accept- 
ance on  the  other,  has  grown  up  a  very  general  belief  that  there  are  great 
well-defined  natural  anatomical  differences  between  the  brains  of  the 


374  International  Council  of  Women. 

sexes  of  the  human  race ;  that  these  differences  are  well  known  to  the  medi- 
cal practitioner  or  anatomist,  and  that  they  plainly  indicate  inferiority  of 
capacity  in  the  female  brain,  which  is  structural,  while,  strangely  enough,  no 
one  argues  that  this  is  the  case  in  the  lower  animals.  It  therefore  occurred 
to  me  to  question — admitting  that  the  microscope  and  scales  really  do  show 
the  differences  to  exist  in  adults — whether  it  would  not  be  fair  to  assume,  at 
least,  that  they  are  not  nitural  and  necessary  sex  differences,  but  that  they 
are  due  to  difference  of  opportunity  and  environment,  and,  under  like  con- 
ditions, would  be  produced  between  members  of  the  same  sex;  that  since 
this  superiority  of  brain  in  the  male  sex  is  said  to  appear  in  the  human  race 
only,  where  alone,  in  all  nature,  superior  opportunities  and  environments  are 
held  as  a  sex  right  and  condition  by  the  males,  that  the  so-called  "  superior- 
ity of  structure"  is  simply  better  development  of  the  equally  capable  but 
restricted  brain  of  the  other  sex. 

I  proposed  to  test  this  by  an  appeal  to  the  brains  of  infants.  And  my  as- 
sumption, although  not  new,  appeared  to  be  borne  out  by  the  accepted, 
though  unproven  theory,  that  the  brains  of  the  men  and  women  are  nearer 
alike  the  lower  we  go  into  the  human  scale.  This  assumption  is  clearly  based 
upon  the  idea  that  where  the  mental  opportunities  of  the  men  and  women 
are  nearer  equal  the  physical  results  are  also  similar.  Indeed,  Topinard 
plainly  states  this  fact  in  his  Anthropology.  He  says  :  "  The  reason  that 
the  brain  of  woman  is  lighter  than  that  of  man  is  that  she  has  less  cerebral 
activity  to  exercise  in  her  sphere  of  duty.  In  former  times  it  was  relatively 
larger  in  the  department  of  Lozere,  because  then  the  woman  and  man 
mutually  shared  the  burdens  of  the  daily  labor.  The  truth  is  that  the  weight 
of  the  brain  increases  with  the  use  we  make  of  it."  Since  women  are  not 
given  diversified  and  stimulating  mental  employment,  they  can  not  be  ex- 
pected to  show  the  results  of  such  training  on  the  brain  itself. 

I  was  started  on  my  work  in  this  matter  by  several  articles  written  by  the 
boldest  of  the  medical  men  in  this  country,  who  is  the  leader  of  the  medical 
party  which  claims  to  be  opposed  to  the  educational  and  political  advance- 
ment of  women  because  of  the  inevitable  injury  to  her  physical  consitution. 
The  writings  of  such  a  man,  aided  by  the  circulation  and  prestige  of  the 
leading  journals  of  the  country,  which  publish  them  as  authoritative,  must 
inevitably  influence  school  directors,  voters,  and  legislators,  and  go  far  to 
crystallize  the  belief  that  facts  are  well  known  to  the  medical  profession, 
with  which  it  would  be  dangerous  to  trifle,  when  the  truth  is  that  the  posi- 
tive knowledge  on  the  subject  is  not  sufficient  at  this  moment  to  form  even 
an  intelligent  guess  upon.  In  spite  of  this  fact  the  well-known  physician  of 
whom  I  speak,  Dr.  Wm.  A.  Hammond,  reiterates  in  these  articles  all  of  the 
old,  and  adds  one  or  two  new,  arguments  to  prove  that  woman  should  not  be 
allowed  to  develop  what  brain  she  has,  because  she  possesses  very  little  and 
even  that  little  is  of  inferior  quality. 


Political  Conditions.  375 

Professor  Romanes,  who  is  said  by  many  to  stand  second  only  to  Herbert 
Spencer  in  his  branch  of  science,  has  also  recently  published  a  very  exten- 
sive paper  on  mental  differences  of  the  sexes  and  the  proper  education  of 
woman,  which  is,  unfortunately,  but  most  likely  honestly,  based  upon  this 
same  assumption,  under  the  belief  that  it  was  a  proven  fact.  His  paper  has 
been  very  widely  copied  in  spite  of  its  extreme  length,  and  the  fact  that  the 
same  journals  "  absolutely  can  not  find  space  "  for  even  a  moderately  long 
one  on  the  other  side.  The  editors  say,  "  The  public  is  not  interested  in 
it" — that  is,  in  its  correction.  I  mention  these  two  men  not  because  they 
are  peculiar  in,  but  because  they  are  honored  representatives  of,  the  so-called 
scientific  school  of  objectors  to  human  equality,  and  claim  to  base  the  right 
of  male  supremacy  upon  important  scientific  facts. 

Of  course  all  this  is  an  old  assumption  and  as  such  has  been  dealt  with 
before.  But  Dr.  Hammond  now  boldly  asserts  that  these  differences  are 
easily  discoverable  by  microscope  and  scales,  and  that  they  are  natural,  neces- 
sary sex  differences.  He  claims  :  (i.)  That  woman's  brain  is  inferior  toman's 
in  size  and  quality,  and,  therefore,  in  possibility.  (2.)  That  these  marks  of 
inferiority  are  natural  and  potential,  and  not  produced  by  environment. 
(3.)  That  they  are  easily  recognizable  in  the  brain  mass  itself.  (4.)  That 
in  consequence  of  these  natural  organic  and  fundamental  differences  the 
female  brain  is  incapable  of,  first,  accuracy;  second,  sustained  or  abstract 
thought  ;  third,  unbiased  judgment  (judicial  fairness);  fourth,  the  accom- 
plishment of  any  really  first-class  or  original  work  in  the  fields  of  science,  art, 
politics,  invention,  or  even  literature.  He  points  out  the  great  danger  to 
woman  herself,  and  to  the  race,  as  her  children,  if  she  is  allowed  to  attempt 
those  things  for  which  the  structure  of  her  brain  shows  her  to  be  incapaci- 
tated. 

From  this  outlook  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  non-professional  voter,  the 
school  director,  and  the  legislator  might  really  feel  it  to  be  his  duty  to  pro- 
tect woman  against  her  own  ambition.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  assertions 
of  such  men  can,  and  do,  cause  the  greatest  injury  to  woman.  There  are  a 
number  of  other  indictments  ;  but  for  the  present  let  us  examine  these. 
First,  in  the  matter  of  size,  the  doctor  concedes  that  the  relative  size  and 
weight  of  the  brain  in  the  sexes  is  about  the  same,  slightly  in  woman's  favor, 
which  he  says  does  not  count ;  although,  when  he  finds  this  same  difference 
between  men,  as  between  higher  and  lower  races,  he  argues  that  it  does  count 
for  a  great  deal.  But  in  the  dilemma  to  which  this  seemed  to  reduce  him  in 
proving  his  case,  he  says :  "  Numerous  observations  show  beyond  doubt  that 
the  intellectual  power  does  not  depend  upon  the  weight  of  the  brain  relative 
to  that  of  the  body  so  much  as  it  depends  upon  absolute  brain  weight." 
Now,  if  this  were  the  case,  an  elephant  would  out-think  any  of  us,  and  the 
whale,  whose  intellectual  achievements  have  never  been  looked  upon  as  abso- 


376  International  Council  of  Women. 

lutely  incendiary  (if  we  except  Jonah's  friend),  would  rank  the  greatest  man  on 
record,  and  have  brain  enough  left  to  furnish  material  for  a  fair-sized  female 
seminary. 

The  average  human  male  brain  is  said  to  weigh  from  1,300  to  1,400 
grammes,  and  even  a  very  young  whale  furnishes  2,312  grammes  of  "  intel- 
lect-producing substance,"  as  the  doctor  felicitously  terms  it,  while  the  brain 
of  a  large  whale  weighed  in  1883  tipped  the  beam  at  6,700  grammes. 
Truly,  then,  if  absolute  brain  weight  and  not  relative  weight  is  the  test,  here 
was  a  "  mute  inglorious  Milton,"  indeed.  Almost  any  elephant  is  several 
Cuviers  in  disguise,  or  perhaps  an  entire  medical  faculty. 

The  doctor  says  :  "  The  female  brain,  however,  is  not  only  smaller  than  that 
of  man,  but  it  is  different  in  structure,  and  this  fact  involves  much  more  as 
regards  the  character  of  the  mental  faculties  than  does  the  element  of 
size."  Again  he  says  :  "  Thus  accurate  measurements  show  that  the  anterior 
portion  of  the  brain,  comprising  the  frontal  lobes,  in  which  the  highest 
intellectual  faculties  reside,  is  much  more  developed  in  man  than  in  woman, 
and  this  not  only  as  regards  its  size,  but  its  convolutions  also.  Now,  the 
part  of  the  brain  which  is  especially  concerned  in  the  evolution  of  mind  is 
the  gray  matter,  and  this  is  increased  or  diminished  in  accordance  with  the 
number  and  complexity  of  the  convolutions.  The  frontal  lobes  contain  a 
greater  amount  of  gray  cortical  matter  than  any  other  part  of  the  brain, 
and  they  are,  as  we  have  seen,  larger  in  man  than  in  woman." 

Accepting  these  sweeping  statements  for  the  moment — although  many  of  them 
are  questioned  by  the  highest  authority — would  it  not  be  fair  to  test  the  case  as 
to  whether  this  difference  in  adults  is  fundamental  and  prenatal,  or  whether 
it  is  the  result  of  outside  artificial  influences,  by  an  appeal  to  the  brain  of 
infants.  If  the  brains  of  one  hundred  infants  (each  child  weighing  ten 
pounds)  were  examined,  would  the  brains  of  the  fifty  males  be  distinguishable 
from  those  of  the  fifty  females  ?  In  other  words,  when  the  weight  of  the  body, 
the  age,  and  other  conditions  are  the  same  as  to  health,  parentage,  etc.,  and 
before  the  artificial  means  of  development,  educational  stimulus  and  oppor- 
tunity are  applied  to  the  one  and  withheld  from  the  other,  could  the  sex  be 
determined  by  the  difference  in  brain,  weight,  shape,  size,  quality,  or  con- 
volutions? That  would  be  the  test,  although  it  would  not  allow  for  the  ages 
of  hereditary  dwarfage  of  the  one,  and  healthy  exercise  of  the  brains  of  the 
other  sex;  but,  as  an  opening,  I  was  willing  to  stand  on  that  test.  It  was  in 
pursuance  of  this  idea  that  I  caused  the  following  questions  to  be  submitted  to 
a  large  number  of  the  leading  brain  students  of  America,  went  myself  somewhat 
into  the  study  of  anthropology,  and  collected  from  several  countries  certain 
bits  of  information  as  to  just  how  much  basis  there  is  for  all  this  cry  about  the 
difference  in  men's  and  women's  brains.  Being  a  matter  of  heads,  I  wanted 
to  know  how  much  was  "cry"  and  how  much  was  "wool." 

These  are  the  questions  submitted  to  the  doctors,  brain  anatomists,  an 


:d 

id 


Political  Conditions.  377 

microscopists  at  the  outset  of  my  task:  (i.)  Is  it  known  to  the  medical  pro- 
fession whether  in  infants  (of  the  same  age,  size,  health,  and  inheritance  at 
birth)  the  quantity,  quality,  and  specific  gravity  of  the  gray  matter  differs  in 
the  sexes?     Does  the  relative  amount  of  gray  matter  differ?     (2.)  Do  the 
convolutions?     Form?     Actual  amount  of  gray  matter  differ?     (3.)  Given 
the  brain,  only,  of  a  number  of  infants  of  the  same  age,  weight,  etc.,  could 
the  sex  be  determined  by  the  difference  in  shape,  quantity,  quality,  and  con- 
volutions?    (4.)  If  so,  are  the  differences  more  or  less  marked  in  infants 
than  in  adults  ?     Is  the  frontal  region  of  the  brain  larger  and  more  developed 
in  male  than  in  female  infants?     Is  the  difference  as  marked  as  in  adults? 
(5.)  Does  use,  training,  etc.,  develop  gray  matter,   change   texture,   size, 
shape,  etc.,  of  the  brain  mass,  or  are  these  determined  and  fixed  at  birth? 
The  same  as  to  convolutions?     (6.)  Does  use  have  to  do  with  the  location 
of  the  fissure  of  Rolando,  or  is  that  fixed  at  birth  ?     In  an  uneducated  man 
would  there  be  as  much  of  the  brain  in  front  of  this  fissure  as  in  a  man  of 
trained  and  developed  mind?     (7.)  Does  use  or  development  of  the  mental 
powers  change  the  specific  gravity  of  the  brain  mass  ?     Would  it  be  the  same 
in  a  great  scholar  as  in  a  common  laborer  of  the  same  general  size  and  health  ? 
(8.)  Is  there  unanimity  of  opinion  on  these  questions?     Are  the  facts  known 
or  only  conjectured  ?     (9.)  If  ten  boys  of  the  same  weight,  health,  and  gen- 
eral inheritance  were  taken  in  infancy  and  five  of  them  subjected  for  fifty 
years  to  the  conditions  of  a  street  or  farm  laborer,  while  the  other  five  re- 
ceived all  the  advantages  of  the  life  of  a  scholar,  would  the  ten  brains  present 
the  same  relative  likenesses  at  death  as  at  birth?     Would  opportunity  and 
mental  exercise  make  a  change  in  the  brains  of  the  five  students  that  would 
be  discoverable  by  microscope  and  scales? 

In  reply  to  the  last  question,  the  universal  opinion  was  that  it  would  be 
fair  to  assume  that  such  difference  would  be  perceptible.     But  one  of  the 
replies  was  that  these  points  must  necessarily  remain  only  conjectural,  since 
we  can  not  do  as  the  Scotch  villager  who  shows  to  a  wondering  public  the  re- 
lains  of  a  famous  criminal,  with  this  bit  of  history:   "  This  is  the  skull  and 
)rain  of  a  man  who  was  hanged,  at  the  age  of  forty,  for  murdering  his  entire 
imily.     This  is  the  skull  and  brain  of  the  same  man  at  the  age  of  seven. 
7ou  can  readily  trace  in  the  boy  the  man  that  was  to  be."     Since  it  might 
)e  looked  upon  with  disfavor  if  we  were  to  attempt  to  brain  people  from  time 
to  time  in  an  effort   to  discover  the  effects  of  culture  upon  the  fissure  of 
Lolando,  we  must  base  all  such  arguments  upon  reason  and  analogy.     Is  it 
lot  a  fair  presumption,  since  reason  and  analogy  lead  to  this  universally  ac- 
cepted theory  as  between  man  and  man,  that  the  same  causes  would  produce 
the  same  results  when  applied  between  man  and  woman?     Strangely  enough, 
this  is  not  held  to  be  the  case  by  these  acute  reasoners  against  sex  equality  in 
)rain. 
But  to  illustrate  once  more  the  necessity  of  questioning  facts  first  and 
25 


378  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  reasons  for  them  afterward,  I  am  assured  by  the  most  profound  and 
capable  students  of  these  branches  of  science,  that  if  such  differences  exist 
in  the  brain  of  infants  as  are  indicated  by  my  questions,  it  is  not  known 
to  those  who  make  a  specialty  of  brain  study;  but,  upon  the  contrary,  the 
differences  between  individuals  of  the  same  sex — in  adults,  at  least — are 
known  to  be  much  more  marked  than  any  that  are  known  to  exist  between 
the  sexes.  Take  the  brains  of  the  two  poets,  Byron  and  Dante.  Byron's 
weighed  1,807  grms->  while  Dante's  weighed  only  1,320  grms.,  a  difference 
of  487  grms. ;  or  take  two  statesmen,  Cromwell  and  Gambetta.  Crom- 
well's brain  weighed  2,210  grms.,  which,  by  the  way,  is  the  greatest  healthy 
brain  on  record — although  Cuvier's  is  usually  quoted  as  the  largest,  a  part  of 
the  weight  of  his  was  due  to  disease,  and  if  a  diseased  or  abnormal  brain  is  to 
be  taken  as  the  standard,  then  the  greatest  on  record  is  that  of  a  negro,  criminal 
idiot — while  Gambetta's  was  only  1,241  grms.,  a  difference  of  969  grms. 
Surely  it  would  not  be  held  because  of  this,  that  Gambetta  and  Dante  should 
have  been  denied  the  educational  and  other  advantages  which  were 
the  natural  right  of  Byron  and  Cromwell.  Yet  it  is  upon  this  very  ground, 
by  this  very  system  of  reasoning,  that  it  is  proposed  to  deny  women  equal 
advantages  and  opportunities,  although  the  difference  in  brain  weight 
between  man  and  woman  is  said  to  be  only  100  grms.,  and  even  this  does 
not  allow  for  difference  in  body  weight,  and  is  based  upon  a  system  of 
averages,  which  is  neither  complete 'nor  accurate.  There  is,  then,  not  only 
no  proof  that  the  sex  of  infants  could  be  distinguished  by  their  brains,  but 
all  of  the  evidence  which  does  exist  on  this  subject  is  wholly  against  the 
assumption. 

Up  to  this  point  in  my  investigation  I  learned  only  what  I  had  fully 
expected  to  learn.  At  the  next  step,  and  in  connection  with  it,  I  met  with 
information  which  seems  to  me  to  offer  an  opportunity  for  reflection  upon 
the  matter  of  mental — not  to  say  verbal — accuracy  in  the  sex  which  does 
not  wear  "bangs."  In  the  papers  referred  to,  Dr.  Hammond  asserted,  and 
no  male  voice  or  pen  has  seen  fit  to  publicly  correct  him,  that  "  it  is  only 
necessary  to  compare  an  average  male  with  an  average  female  brain  to  per- 
ceive at  once  how  numerous  and  striking  are  the  differences  existing  between 
them."  He  then  submits  a  formidable  list  of  striking  differences  which 
include  these  :  "  The  male  brain  is  larger,  its  vertical  and  transverse  diam- 
eters are  greater  proportionally,  the  shape  is  quite  different,  the  convolu- 
tions are  more  intricate,  the  sulci  deeper,  the  secondary  fissures  more 
numerous,  and  the  gray  matter  of  the  corresponding  parts  of  the  brain 
decidedly  thicker."  , 

But  as  if  all  these  were  not  enough  to  enable  the  merest  novice  to  dis- 
tinguish the  one  from  the  other,  even  if  he  were  near-sighted,  he  offers 
these  reinforcements  :  "  It  is  quite  certain,  as  the  observations  of  the  writer 
show,  that  the  specific  gravity  of  both  the  white  and  gray  matter  of  the  brain 


Political  Conditions.  379 

is  greater  in  man  than  in  woman."  This  would  seem  to  leave  woman 
without  a  reef  to  hang  to  ;  for  if  by  any  chance  her  brain  did  not  fall  short 
in  gray  matter,  the  specific  gravity  of  the  rest  of  it  would  enable  the  doctor 
to  ticket  her  as  accurately  as  though  she  were  to  appear  with  ear-rings  and 
train  in  a  ball-room.  Of  this  point  this  is  what  the  leading  brain  anatomist 
in  America  wrote  me:  "The  only  article  recognized  by  the  profession  as 
important  and  of  recent  date  which  takes  this  theory  as  a  working  basis  is 
by  Morselli,  and  he  is  compelled  to  make  the  sinister  admission,  while 
asserting  that  the  specific  gravity  is  less  in  the  female,  that  with  old  age  and 
with  insanity  the  specific  gravity  increases."  If  this  is  the  case,  I  don't 
know  that  women  need  sigh  over  their  short-coming  in  the  item  of  specific 
gravity.  There  appear  to  be  two  very  simple  methods  open  to  them  by 
which  they  may  emulate  their  brothers  in  the  matter  of  specific  gravity  if 
they  so  desire.  One  of  these  is  certain,  if  they  live  long  enough,  and  the 
other — well,  there  is  no  protective  tariff  on  insanity.  But  to  finally  clinch 
his  argument,  Dr.  Hammond  continues  :  "  The  question  is,  therefore,  not 
so  much  that  of  quantity"  (which  appears  to  collide  with  his  statement 
that  it  was  the  '•  absolute  brain  weight  "  which  was  the  sublime  test,  and 
drops  my  whale  into  the  water  again),  "  as  it  is  of  quality.  The  brain  of 
woman  is  different  from  that  of  man  in  structure." 

Again  I  applied  my  test.  Does  all.  this  difference  of  structure  and 
quality  appear  in  the  infant  or  only  in  the  adult  brains?  Since  it  is  held 
that  these  very  differences  are  the  ones  produced  by  education  and  properly- 
diversified  mental  stimulus — as  between  man  and  man — is  it  not  fair  to  as- 
sume that  like  causes  produce  like  results  as  between  man  and  woman  ? 
Since  woman  has  never  had  the  advantages  of  these  brain-developing  proc- 
esses, is  it  not  fair  to  assume,  if  all  these  differences  do  exist,  that  it  is  less 
a  matter  of  natural  and  characteristic  inferiority  than  of  environment  and 
opportunity,  unless  it  exists  in  the  same  ratio  in  infants?  That  would  be 
the  test  as  to  whether  these  are  natural,  necessary,  pre-natal  sex  characteris- 
tics, or  whether  they  are  developed  by  external  circumstances  and  environ- 
ment. The  physical  sex  characteristics,  which  are  natural,  are  as  readily 
distinguished  at  birth  as  at  maturity. 

But  after  a  woman's  waist  and  brain  are  put  into  tight  laces  and  shaped  to 
fit  the  fashion,  it  is  a  rather  poor  time  to  judge  of  her  natural  figure,  either 
physical  or  mental.  There  was  but  one  reply  to  my  questions.  It  was  this  : 
No  such  test  has  ever  been  made  with  the  brains  of  infants,  and  the  wildest 
imagination  could  only  stand  appalled  at  the  effort.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  distinguish  the  male  from  the  female  child  by  these  "  radical,  natural, 
easily-discovered  sex  differences"  in  brain.  I  held,  then,  that  the  inference 
was  perfectly  legitimate  that  the  great  and  numerous  differences  in  the  brains 
of  adults,  in  so  far  as  that  was  not,  also,  a  mere  flight  of  fancy,  was  not  nat- 
ural, pre-natal,  and  necessary,  but  that  it  was  certainly  fair  to  assume  it  to 


380  International  Council  of  Women. 

be  producible,  by  outside  measures  or  environment,  and  that  it  could  be  no 
more  natural  nor  desirable,  for  the  digestive  organs  and  the  brain  of  one  sex 
to  be  decreased  and  deformed  by  pressure,  than  it  is  for  those  of  the  other. 

But  I  confess  I  was  wholly  unprepared  for  the  final  result  of  my  last  ques- 
tion and  argument.  I  discovered  that  these  differences  are  not  only  not 
known  to  exist  in  infants,  but  that  in  spite  of  all  the  talk,  the  pathetic  warn- 
ings, and  the  absolute  statements  to  the  contrary,  that  in  a  like  number  of 
adult  brains  such  differences  are  not  only  not  to  be  "  perceived  at  once," 
but  that  if  Dr.  Hammond  or  anybody  else  will  agree  to  allow  me  to  furnish 
him  with  twenty  well-preserved  adult  brains  to  be  marked  in  cipher,  so  that 
he  will  not  have  his  information  before  he  makes  his  test,  he  will  find  that 
his  "  numerous,  striking,  and  easily  perceived  "  differences  will  not  appear 
with  any  relation  to  sex,  so  far  as  is  known  at  the  present  time.  I  made 
this  offer  to  him  through  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  some  six  months  ago. 
Up  to  date  the  twenty  brains  I  offered  him  to  try  on  have  not  been  called 
for.  Upon  the  contrary  there  will  be  found  greater  difference  between 
individuals  of  the  same  sex  than  any  known  to  exist  between  the  sexes  in  any 
and  all  of  these  test  characteristics ;  that,  in  the  main,  since  women  weigh 
less  than  men,  it  would  be  pretty  safe  to  guess  that  most  of  the  lighter  brains 
belonged  to  the  women,  but  that  this  test  would  prove  wrong  in  many  cases, 
and  that  the  others  would  fail  utterly. 

I  asked  them  why  they  did  not  correct  the  general  impression  which  men 
of  their  profession  had  given  out  in  this  matter.  They  said  they  did  not  see 
the  use  of  it;  what  difference  did  it  make,  anyhow?  And  then  it  was  a 
good  enough  "  working  theory."  I  said,  "  But  suppose  it  worked  the  other 
way,  do  you  think  that  you  would  say  that  it  made  no  difference,  and  that  a 
working  theory  that  worked  all  one  way  was  a  safe  or  an  honest  one  to  put 
forth  as  an  established  fact?  "  "  Well,  we  are  willing  to  tell  you  the  truth 
about  it,"  said  they;  "the  fact  is,  it  is  all  theory  as  yet ;  there  has  not 
been  a  sufficient  number  of  tests  made  to  warrant  the  least  dogmatism  in  the 
matter;  what  more  can  you  ask  of  us  than  that?"     What,  indeed? 

I  made  another  discovery;  it  was  this  :  The  brain  of  no  remarkable  woman 
has  ever  been  examined  !  Woman  is  ticketed  to  fit  the  hospital  subjects  and 
tramps,  the  unfortunates  whose  brains  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  profession, 
as  it  were,  by  mere  accident ;  while  man  is  represented  by  the  brains  of  the 
Cromwells,  Cuviers,  Byrons,  and  Spurzheims.  By  this  method  the  average 
of  men's  brains  is  carried  to  its  highest  level  in  the  matter  of  weight  and 
texture;  while  that  of  women  is  kept  at  its  lowest,  and  even  then  there  is 
only  claimed  ioo  grammes  difference  !  It  is  with  such  statistics  as  this,  it  is 
with  such  dissimilar  material,  that  they  and  we  are  judged. 

Finally,  I  discovered  that  there  is  absolutely  no  definite  information  on 
the  subject  now  in  the  hands  or  books  of  the  medical  profession  which  can 
justify  the  least  show  of  dogmatism  in  the  matter ;  or  if  it  were  on  the  other 


Political  Conditions.  381 

side,  would  not  be  explained  entirely  away  in  five  minutes,  and  there  would 
not  be  the  least  question  as  to  the  desirability  of  the  explanation,  either.  They 
told  me  not  only  that  they  did  not  know,  but  that  no  one  could  possibly  know 
upon  the  statistics  and  with  the  instruments  in  the  hands  of  the  profession 
to-day. 

This  being  the  case,  perhaps  it  will  be  just  as  well  for  women  to  take  a 
hand  in  the  future  investigations  and  statements  themselves,  and  I  sincerely 
hope  that  the  brains  of  some  of  our  able  women  may  be  preserved  and  exam- 
ined by  honest  brain  students,  so  that  we  may  hereafter  have  our  Cuviers  and 
Websters  and  Cromwells.  And  I  think  I  know  where  some  of  them  can  be 
found  without  a  search-warrant — when  Miss  Anthony,  Mrs.  Stanton,  and 
some  others  I  have  the  honor  to  know,  are  done  with  theirs.  Until  that  is 
done,  no  honest  or  fair  comparison  is  possible.  At  present  there  is  too 
great  a  desire  on  the  part  of  these  large-brained  gentlemen,  like  Dr.  Ham- 
mond, to  look  upon  themselves  and  their  brains  as  "infant  industries," 
entitled  to  and  in  need  of  a  very  high  protective  tariff,  to  prevent  anything 
like  a  fair  and  equal  competition  with  the  feminine  product. 

But  the  fact  is  that  we  have  heard  so  much  on  the  one  side  about  woman's 
physical  and  mental  short-comings,  and  on  the  other  side,  from  our  prohibition 
friends  and  others,  so  much  of  the  moral  delinquencies  of  men,  that  it  seems 
to  me  that  we  are  in  danger  of  believing  both.  And  I,  for  one,  am  begin- 
ning to  feel  a  good  deal  like  Mark  Twain's  Irishman,  whenever  I  hear  either 
one  discussed.  He  had  been  having  a  controversy  with  another  man,  and, 
as  a  final  "clincher"  to  his  side  of  the  argument,  said,  with  emphasis: 
"Now,  I  don't  want  to  hear  anything  more  from  you  on  that  subject  but 
silence — and  mighty  little  of  that." 

Allow  me  to  read  the  closing  paragraph  of  a  letter  to  me  from  Dr.  E.  C. 
Spitzka,  the  celebrated  New  York  brain  specialist,  to  whom  I  am  greatly  in- 
debted for  much  valuable  information  : 

You  may  hold  me  responsible  for  the  following  declaration  :  That  any  statement 
to  the  effect  that  an  observer  can  tell  by  looking  at  a  brain,  or  examining  it  micro- 
scopically, whether  it  belonged  to  a  female  or  a  male  subject,  is  not  founded  on  care- 
fully-observed facts.  The  balance  and  the  compasses  show  slight  differences  ;  the 
weight  of  the  male  brain  being  greater,  and  the  angle  formed  by  the  sulcus  of 
Rolando,  forming  a  larger  expansion  of  the  frontal  lobes;  but  both  these  points  of 
difference  have  been  determined  by  the  method  of  averages.  They  do  not  necessa- 
rily apply  to  the  individual  brain  and  hence  can  not  be  utilized  to  determine  the  sex 
of  a  single  brain,  except  by  those  who  are  willing  to  take  the  chances  of  guessing. 
The  assertion  that  the  microscope  reveals  definite  characteristic  points  of  difference 
between  the  male  and  female  brain  is  utterly  incorrect.  No  such  difference  has  ever 
been  demonstrated,  nor  do  I  think  it  will  be  by  more  elaborate  methods  than  those 
we  now  possess.  Numerous  female  brains  exceed  numerous  male  brains  in  absolute 
weight,  in  complexity  of  convolutions,  and  in  what  brain  anatomists  would  call  the 
nobler  proportions.  So  that  he  who  takes  these  as  his  criteria  of  the  male  brain 
may  be  grievously  mistaken  in  attempting  to  assert  the  sex  of  a  brain  dogmatically. 


382  International  Council  of  Women. 

If  I  had  one  hundred  female  brains  and  one  hundred  male  brains  together,  I  should 
select  the  one  hundred  containing  the  largest  and  best  developed  brains  as  probably 
containing  fewer  female  brains  than  the  remaining  one  hundred.  More  than  this  no 
cautious,  experienced  brain  anatomist  would  venture  to  declare. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  Mrs.  Ashton 
Dilke,  delegate  from  the  Women's  Liberal  Association  of  Newcastle-on- 
Tyne. 

Mrs.  Dilke.  I  have  always  been  impressed  by  the  political  importance  of 
women's  voting.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  whatever  great  advances  were 
made  by  women  in  education,  in  philanthropy,  in  science,  or  in  any  other 
branch  of  learning,  they  yet  risked  everything  being  swept  away  if  their 
rights  and  their  privileges  and  all  that  they  had  won  were  not  backed  up  by 
a  political  vote.  We  have  had,  both  in  England  and  in  the  United  States 
of  America,  many  years  of  peace,  and  it  is  hard  to  grasp  the  idea  that  in 
times  of  war  and  revolution,  political  liberties  that  are  not  defended  by  a 
vote,  may  be  swept  away  as  if  they  had  never  existed ;  whereas  where  con- 
stitutional government,  either  in  the  form  of  a  constitutional  monarchy  or 
in  the  higher  form  of  a  republic,  is  established,  once  the  war  is  passed,  the 
voter  steps  to  the  ballot-box  again,  and  liberty  and  law  resume  the  sway  they 
held  before. 

There  are  two  radical  differences  between  political  life  in  England  and 
America.  One  of  these  differences  is  the  fact  that  you  have  a  written  Con- 
stitution of  your  liberties — a  Constitution  I  myself  as  an  English  woman,  will 
admit  one  of  the  grandest  the  world  has  ever  seen.  That  Constitution 
it  would  take  brave  men  to  attack,  but  it  also  would  take  a  considerable 
amount  of  political  agitation  to  make  constitutional  changes.  In  England, 
much  as  the  Conservatives  in  the  past  were  wont  to  talk  of  our  grand  consti- 
tution, no  such  thing  exists  at  all;  that  is  to  say,  the  English  constitution 
consists  of  those  laws  that  are  passed  by  Parliament  from  year  to  year.  And 
therefore  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  easier  in  England  to  obtain  such  a  con- 
stitutional change  as  the  question  of  women's  suffrage  involves.  I  am  quite 
aware  that  there  is  a  greater  safety  about  your  system  of  a  written  constitu- 
tion. But  from  the  women's  point  of  view,  who  wish  a  constitutional 
change,  there  are  advantages  in  having  an  unwritten  constitution,  that  maybe 
changed  from  year  to  year.  The  whole  tendency  of  public  life  in  England 
during  the  past  fifty  years — in  fact,  it  almost  exactly  coincides  with  the  reign 
of  our  present  sovereign — has  been  a  series  of  measures  intended  to  democ- 
ratize English  institutions.  We  have  been  gradually  increasing  the  number 
of  persons  holding  votes;  but  at  the  present  moment  men  even,  have  not 
universal  suffrage  in  England.  There  is  still  a  qualification  for  the  vote 
there,  and  there  are  still  large  numbers  of  men  unenfranchised,  and  I  have 
found  some  of  the  greatest  sympathy  for  the  disfranchised  women,  among 
those  men  who  remain  disfranchised. 


Political  Conditions.  383 

Believing  in  the  democratization  of  English  institutions,  and  wishing  to 
see  in  the  end  universal  adult  suffrage  for  men  and  women  alike,  I  am  ex- 
tremely anxious  that  we  may  obtain  the  enfranchisement  of  some  women 
while  there  are  some  men  disfranchised.  While  only  a  part  of  the  men  are 
enfranchised,  it  is  possible  for  us  to  ask  for  only  part  of  the  women  to  be  en- 
franchised ;  and  if  you  knew  how  tied  down  by  precedent  the  English  gov- 
ernment is,  if  you  knew  how  fond  the  English  nation  is  of  going  step  by 
step,  and  trying  each  step  and  wondering^  if  they  shall  not  go  back  upon  it, 
you  would  realize  that  it  is  possible  in  England  to  obtain  the  temporary 
enfranchisement  of  a  small  number  of  women,  with  the  hope  in  the  future 
of  enfranchising  the  whole. 

In  the  great  extension  of  local  government  that  is  going  on  in  the  British 
Isles,  Parliament  is  overburdened  with  work.  Instead  of  having  two 
chambers  to  divide  the  work  between,  they  have  one  chamber  of  hereditary 
legislators,  who  sit  for  a  couple  of  hours  in  the  afternoon  and  then  adjourn 
for  dinner,  and  do  no  work  at  all,  while  the  other  chamber  is  overburdened. 
It  is  absolutely  necessary  in  England  at  the  present  time,  to  find  some  means 
of  relieving  the  House  of  Commons  of  its  work,  and  that  is  being  done  by  a 
large  extension  of  local  government.  Women  have  already  got  their  foot 
into  this  local  government.  It  is  sometimes  said  it  is  so  dangerous  to  take 
the  first  step.  In  England  women  have  taken  the  first  step ;  although  no 
women  vote  for  Parliament,  yet  a  very  large  number  do  vote  in  local  affairs, 
that  is,  the  "spinsters  and  widows." 

The  three  principal  votes  are — 

ist.  The  municipal  vote;  that  is  to  say,  all  towns  in  England  and  Scot- 
land, with  the  exception  of  London,  which  have  municipal  institutions, 
allow  the  unmarried  and  widows  to  vote.     This  does  not  apply  to  Ireland. 

2d.  With  regard  to  the  schools,  the  same  classes  vote  for  what  we  in  England 
call  school  boards ;  that  is,  a  sort  of  parliament  governing  school  affairs  in 
these  towns.  In  these  school  boards  the  women  not  only  vote  for  the  mem- 
bers sitting,  but  they  hold  positions  themselves,  and  a  large  number  of  women 
have  been  returned  as  members  of  the  school  boards.  The  very  first  woman 
returned  was  in  London,  Mrs.  Garrett  Anderson,  well  known  as  a  doctor. 
She  is  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Millicent  Garrett  Fawcett.  The  possibility  of  return- 
ing women  to  the  school  boards  is  very  much  assisted  by  the  fact  that  they 
are  elected  by  a  cumulative  vote ;  that  is  to  say,  if  five  members  are  to  be 
elected  for  the  board,  each  elector  has  five  votes,  and  may  give  all  to  one 
candidate.  That  has  enabled  a  small  number  of  women  voters  to  return  the 
women  candidates.  And  it  certainly  is  a  very  interesting  fact  to  find  that 
the  women  do,  as  a  rule,  vote  for  the  return  of  women  to  the  school  boards. 

3d.  There  is  another  large  question  on  which  women  in  England  have 
votes.  There  is  an  immense  amount  of  poverty  in  England,  and  we  have  a 
Poor  Law  for  dealing  with  that  poverty.     The  Poor  Law  Guardians  can  be 


384  International  Council  of  Women. 

either  men  or  women,  and  those  who  elect  them  are  both  men  and  women. 
In  all  these  cases  it  is  only  widows  and  spinsters  who  may  vote  for  the 
return  of  women  to  these  boards. 

It  is  not  only  very  important  to  find  large  bodies  of  women  voting  all 
over  the  country,  but  to  know  that  women  are  very  anxious  to  take  even- 
opportunity  of  exercising  such  vote,  whenever  they  can  do  so  ;  for  we  find 
that  the  proportion  of  women  voting  is  fully  equal  to  the  proportion  of  men 
voting.  The  principle  of  women  voting  in  local  affairs,  is  now  so  estab- 
lished that  no  government,  whether  conservative  or  liberal,  can  bring  in  a 
bill  for  the  extension  of  local  affairs  without  including  the  enfranchisement 
of  women.  That  was  very  well  seen  in  the  last  government  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, when  Sir  William  Harcourt  brought  in  a  bill  for  the  reform  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  London,  the  only  unreformed  municipality  remaining  in  England. 
That  bill,  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  did  not  pass,  would  have  enfranchised 
the  women  of  London,  although  Sir  William  Harcourt  himself  is  notoriously 
opposed  to  woman  suffrage.  And  so,  again,  I  had  no  sooner  set  foot  in 
America,  than  I  took  up  a  newspaper  that  gave  an  account  of  a  local  govern- 
ment bill  brought  in  by  the  present  government.  The  present  government 
of  Lord  Salisbury  is  very  conservative,  and,  by  some  persons,  thought  to  be 
very  reactionary;  and  yet,  on  account  of  the  support,  of  a  body  of  men  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  known  as  the  Liberal  Unionists,  the  Conservatives  them- 
selves have  been  obliged  to  extend  local  government  to  the  counties  of  En- 
gland, to  establish  in  the  counties  something  like  the  municipal  government 
in  the  towns;  and  throughout  the  counties  of  England  it  enfranchised  the 
same  body  of  "spinsters  and  widows."  And,  of  course,. with  the  majority 
that  Lord  Salisbury  commands  in  both  Houses,  there  is  no  doubt  that,  before 
the  present  sitting  of  the  House  of  Commons  is  finished — that  is  to  say,  about 
August  next — a  very  large  body  of  women  will  be  enfranchised  in  this  way 
alone. 

We  have  already  been  told  from  this  platform,  by  a  lady  from  Canada, 
that  in  a  province  of  Canada  not  only  is  there  local  franchise  for  women,  but 
that  unmarried  women  vote  also  for  the  local  Parliament.  There  is  one 
other  little  piece  of  the  British  Dominions  that  has  already  obtained  women's 
suffrage ;  peculiarly  enough,  that  very  small  and  almost  forgotten  piece  of 
the  British  Islands  is  called  the  Isle  of  Man. 

A  Women's  Suffrage  bill  has  been  brought  many  times  into  the  House  of 
Parliament ;  it  has  had  some  very  distinguished  leaders — some  of  the  ad- 
vanced Liberal  party — such  men  as  John  Stuart  Mill,  Jacob  Bright,  Leonard 
Courtney,  and  Mr.  Woodhall,  have  devoted  many  years  of  their  lives  to 
forwarding  the  enfranchisement  of  women. 

It  is  found  that  as  the  unmarried  women  have  been  enfranchised  for  local 
affairs,  it  is  very  much  easier  to  obtain  a  bill  enfranchising  unmarried  women 
for  parliamentary  affairs  as  well ;  and,  therefore,  the  bill  which  is  at  present 


Political  Conditions.  385 

before  the  House  of  Commons,  and  which,  I  am  glad  to  say,  obtained  a  con- 
siderable majority  in  the  last  Parliament,  but  which  never  yet  has  been  passed 
in  all  its  stages  in  either  the  House  of  Commons  or  House  of  Lords,  is  for 
the  enfranchisement  of  "spinsters  and  widows."  That,  you  see,  is  follow- 
ing pretty  closely  upon  the  other  precedents.  There  is  a  divided  opinion 
as  to  whether  only  unmarried  women  ought  to  be  enfranchised,  but  this  has 
been  the  result  of  a  compromise;  it  was  found  that  that  could  be  obtained, 
and  it  was  very  difficult  to  say  whether  any  other  bill  would  be  as  well  re- 
ceived in  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  when  it  was  found  that  a  large  sec- 
tion of  the  Conservative  party,  as  well  as  of  the  Liberal  party,  were  willing 
to  support  the  bill  for  the  enfranchisement  of  unmarried  women,  it  was  then 
arranged  that  the  bill  should  have  on  its  back  the  names  of  an  equal  number 
of  Conservative  and  Liberal  members,  and  that  is  the  bill  that  is  at  present 
waiting  for  consideration  before  the  House  of  Commons. 

A  great  work  has  been  done  in  the  past  by  Women's  Suffrage  Societies  all 
over  England.  They  have  had  to  pass  an  immense  amount  of  ridicule  and 
abuse;  but  at  the  present  day  there  is  more  tolerance  of  woman  suffrage. 
Some  years  ago,  when  I  first  took  an  interest  in  the  matter,  it  certainly  was 
not  so.  Opinion  seemed  to  be  very  sharply  divided  as  to  whether  woman 
should  have  the  parliamentary  suffrage  or  not ;  but  at  the  present  day  there 
is  a  great  deal  of  toleration,  and  I  put  down  the  toleration  that  it  has  obtained 
of  late,  very  much  to  the  action  outside  of  the  Woman  Suffrage  Society 
itself.  For  in  England  women  take  a  very  large  part  in  politics.  Women 
work  at  the  elections  very  much  in  the  way  that  men  do.  Women  canvass 
and  make  speeches,  not  only  for  their  husbands,  and  brothers,  and  fathers, 
but  for  any  candidate  in  whom  they  are  interested.  And  women  have  banded 
themselves  together  for  both  sides  in  politics,  to  work  directly  for  liberalism 
or  for  conservatism.  On  the  Conservative  side  those  women  are  called  the 
"  Primrose  League,"  and  on  the  Liberal  side  they  are  called  the  "  Women's 
Liberal  Association;  "  and  Mrs.  Gladstone  herself  is  president  of  one  of  those 
Women's  Liberal  Associations  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  here 
to-night. 

The  Primrose  League — that  is  to  say,  the  Conservative  ladies — have  a  most 
tremendous  list  of  titles  among  their  numbers,  duchesses  and  countesses,  and 
they  have  done  woman  suffrage  the  advantage  of  simply  abolishing  one  old 
stock  argument  against  us,  an  argument  you  must  have  heard  in  this  country, 
as  we  have  had  it  constantly  in  ours,  the  argument  that  politics  did  not  con- 
cern women.  They  used  to  tell  us,  and  we  were  especially  told  this  by  Con- 
servative men,  that  the  polls  was  no  place  for  women ;  but  now  that  the 
Conservative  party  have  gone  down  on  their  knees  to  every  lady,  begging 
her  to  come  and  help  them,  they  have  been  obliged,  for  very  shame,  to  give 
up  using  such  arguments  as  this,  and  women  are  openly  interested  in  poli- 
tics. 


386  International  Council  of  Women. 

A  great  deal  was  said  by  the  speaker  that  preceded  me,  of  the  right  to  vote 
being  included  in  the  American  Constitution.  When  first  women's  suffrage 
came  before  the  English  public,  great  efforts  were  also  made  to  show,  that  as 
far  back  as  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  women  had  voted  for  Parliament, 
and  that  it  was  only  during  the  wars,  in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  that  the  right 
to  vote  had  fallen  into  disuse,  and  that  it  was,  in  fact,  only  in  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century  that  they  had  been  disfranchised,  in  so  many  words. 

If  women's  suffrage  could  have  been  obtained  in  that  way,  it  would  have 
saved  us  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  but  for  my  part  I  am  quite  content  that  the 
legislature  in  our  country  should  pass  women's  suffrage  deliberately;  whether 
women  voted, in  the  past  or  not,  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  men  of  the 
country  never  at  any  time  intended  in  England  that  a  large  number  of 
women  should  vote.  Their  voting  was  accidental,  and  I  myself  am  quite 
content  to  remain  without  the  franchise  until  it  shall  be  given  to  the  whole 
country.  I  should  like  to  have  the  women's  suffrage  bill  passed  deliberately, 
so  that  we  shall  be  entirely  enfranchised — women  of  all  classes.  This  would 
recognize  their  right  more  publicly  than  if  we  had  been  able  to  creep  in  by 
any  back  door  into  our  constitution. 

I  think  the  women's  suffrage  question  was  put  forward  very  much  among 
the  wealthy  women  of  England  by  the  last  reform  bill,  which  was  brought 
in  by  Mr.  Gladstone  with  the  object  of  enfranchising  the  agricultural  people, 
and  all  the  working  men  who  lived  outside  the  parliamentary  boroughs. 
When  that  bill  was  before  the  House  of  Commons  it  was  considered  by 
the  Women's  Suffrage  Society  and  by  the  Members  of  Parliament  who  sup- 
ported their  views,  that  it  would  be  very  wrong  to  let  the  bill  pass  without 
entering  a  protest  in  behalf  of  women's  suffrage.  It  was  very  much  the 
same  thing  that  happened  here  in  your  country,  at  the  time  of  the  anti- 
slavery  reform,  when  the  woiren  were  compelled  to  allow  the  slaves  to  be- 
come rulers  and  they  await  their  time.  We  women  were  appealed  to  on 
every  hand  in  England,  to  stand  aside  and  let  the  bill  pass  for  the  en- 
franchisement of  these  agricultural  people  and  laborers,  and  wait  for  our 
turn  another  time  ;  but  the  brave  supporters  of  our  cause  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  moved  an  amendment  to  this  great  reform  bill,  and  I  am 
proud  to  say  that  in  spite  of  every  effort  made  by  the  government  of  the  day, 
to  prevent  Liberals  from  voting,  they  went  into  Parliament  and  voted  for 
women's  suffrage.  The  refusal  on  that  occasion  to  enfranchise  women, 
had  a  very  great  effect  on  the  opinion  of  the  well-to-do  women  of  the 
country,  for  that  bill  contained  a  clause  especially  enfranchising  domestic 
servants  ;.  it  was  called  the  "  service  franchise."  You  see  in  England  it  is  a 
complicated  system  for  deciding  who  shall  vote  and  who  shall  not  vote.  There 
is  the  labor  franchise  ;  there  is  the  lodge  franchise,  that  enfranchises  men 
living  in  lodgings  ;  and  there  are  other  franchises  for  different  classes  of 
people.      And  Mr.  Gladstone  himself,  put  a  clause  in  this  bill  enfranchising 


Political  Conditions.  387 

servants,  and  it  was  called  the  service  franchise.  I  do  not  think  anything 
could  have  convinced  rich  women  more  than  this,  that  their  footmen,  their 
butlers,  waiters,  and  gardeners  were  all  enfranchised  by  it,  while  they  were  left 
out. 

We  in  England  have  had  to  fight  with  many  of  the  old  arguments  that 
you  have  been  so  affected  by,  and  among  them  is  one  which  I  sometimes 
call  the  physical  force  argument — that  women  can  not  fight,  and  therefore 
should  not  vote.  I  should  like  you  to  remember  a  particularly  curious  fact 
in  regard  to  that  argument.  Until  a  short  time  ago  people  said  to  me  con- 
stantly, "  You  can  not  vote  because  you  can  not  defend  your  country."  But 
there  was  another  law  that  declared  that  when  you  were  a  policeman  or  a 
soldier,  and  therefore  defended  your  country,  you  were  especially  excused 
from  the  ballot-box.  So  the  logic  was  not  on  the  side  of  those  who  declared 
that  we  could  not  vote  because  we  could  not  defend  our  country  ;  because 
we  were  not  police  or  soldiers.  That  law  has  been  altered  to  a  certain  extent 
now,  because  a  certain  number  of  soldiers  and  policemen  are  able  to  exer- 
cise the  franchise  to-day.  But  they  do  not  vote  because  they  are  soldiers 
and  policemen  ;  they  vote  because  they  come  under  the  category  of  house- 
holders ;  they  vote  as  citizens  and  not  as  soldiers  and  policemen,  and  there- 
fore the  argument  holds  good  that  the  question  of  enfranchisement  should 
not  obtain  upon  one's  ability  to  defend  one's  country. 

There  is  another  point  I  have  heard  from  this  platform — the  question  whether 
home  life  would  be  in  any  way  affected  by  the  political  activity  of  women. 
And  I,  who  have  always  been  intensely  interested  in  home  life,  who  have 
had  an  intense  belief  in  its  sanctity,  I  would  be  the  very  last  person 
to  do  anything  in  my  power  to  weaken  any  such  influence  as  that.  I 
believe  that  the  introduction  of  political  interests  into  the  home,  will  rather 
increase  the  intelligent  interests  in  everything  that  women  undertake ; 
therefore  I  advocate  this,  for  this  reason  as  well  as  for  every  other 
reason. 

Since  I  have  been  in  this  country  I  have  heard  many  persons  express 
disapproval  of  your  system  of  universal  suffrage.  If  I  could  assure  Amer- 
icans that  in  our  country  we  see  the  disadvantages  on  the  other  side ; 
that  we  have  been  working  for  fifty  years  for  the  enfranchisement  of 
every  man  and  woman  of  every  class,  because  we  have  seen  the  disad- 
vantages of  partial  suffrage — I  should  assure  you  that  I  believe  that  no  such 
blow  could  be  given  to  the  principle  of  democratization,  as  to  see  our 
great  sister  across  the  Atlantic  taking  away  even  the  very  smallest  tittle  of 
enfranchisement,  from  any  who  have  come  to  her  shores.  We  are  accustomed 
to  turn  to  your  country  to  see  the  advantages  of  popular  enfranchisement. 
And  I  can  not  but  repeat  the  words — that  it  would  be  the  greatest  blow 
to  our  labors  in  these  days,  to  withdraw  any  small  part  of  the  enfran- 
chisement which  your  country  grants,  if  you  were  for  a  moment  to  think 


388  International  Council  of  Women. 

of  disfranchising  the  small  company  even  of  those  who  come  to  this 
country.  It  is  a  grand  fact — the  equality  of  America;  it  is  a  fact  that  we 
are  realizing  more  and  more  every  day  as  we  come  to  your  land  and  you 
come  to  ours.  We  hope  before  very  long  we  shall  be  able  to  enfran- 
chise some,  even  if  only  a  few,  women,  and  give  an  example  to  the  countries 
on  both  sides  of  the  splendid  political  work  that  women  are  able  to  accom- 
plish, and  I  hope  that  the  time  will  be  very  short  in  coming. 

The  paper  of  Baroness  Alexandra  Gripenberg,  who  was  too 
ill  to  attend  the  Council,  is  here  presented. 

WOMAN'S    WORK    IN    FINLAND. 

It  is  told  about  a  rich  man  that  the  only  picture  in  his  grand  ban- 
quet-room, was  that  of  a  child,  poorly  dressed,  and  with  a  piece  of  dry 
bread  in  its  hand.  He  wished  it  to  be  a  sermon  without  words  for  him- 
self and  his  guests  around  his  rich  table.  You,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
you,  the  children  of  grand  America,  old  rich  England,  glorious  France, 
Germany,  Italy,  India!  you  are  sitting  at  the  rich  man's  table.  I  am  going 
to  show  you  the  picture  of  a  poor  child — I  am  going  to  tell  you  a  few  words 
about  Finland,  that  little,  forgotten  corner  of  the  world,  where  the  youngest 
and  most  unknown  among  old  Europe's  daughters  live.  Finland  has  had  a 
hard  lesson  to  learn,  being  for  centuries  the  battle-ground  for  Russia  and 
Sweden.  Whatever  civilization  was  sown  during  some  years  of  peace,  was 
again  destroyed  by  long  and  bloody  wars.  The  hard  climate  created  famines, 
the  famines  created  the  plague,  and  those  two  took  what  the  wars  had  left 
of  manhood,  youth,  and  health. 

What  was  the  position  of  the  forgotten  nation  during  those  long  periods  of 
endless  wars?  What  was  the  position  of  the  Finnish  women?  History  is  silent, 
as  she  generally  is,  concerning  women  ;  but  no  doubt  they  took  their  part  in 
those  dark  days.  The  poets  speak  of  woman's  beautiful  destiny,  to  heal  with 
soft  hands  the  warrior's  wounds,  far  from  the  noisy  battle-ground.  But  we 
all  know  that  in  reality  her  position  is  worse  than  that.  There  is,  however, 
one  reason  why  we  may  hope  that  the  Finnish  woman's  position  was  miti- 
gated by  one  circumstance.  Deep  in  the  Finnish  national  character  there 
is  a  greater  admiration  for  spiritual  superiority,  than  for  physical  strength, 
and  already  in  our  old,  national  epic,  Kalevala,  he  who  conquered  his  enemy 
by  his  words, was  a  greater  hero  than  he  who  won  the  victory  by  his  sword.  I 
think  this  is  always  a  good  sign  for  us  women,  the  physically  weaker  part  of 
humanity. 

The  Finnish  women's  legal  position  was,  of  course,  the  same  as  prevailed 
in  Sweden,  to  which  country  it  belonged  until  1809.  In  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury they  obtained  the  right  of  inheritance,  which  was  confirmed  by  law  in 
1734.  Sons,  however,  inherited  two-thirds  and  daughters  only  one-third 
of  their  father's  property.    A  woman  was  always  considered  a  minor,  unless  she 


Political  Conditions.  389 

became  a  widow,  and  a  wife  was  in  absolute  dependence  upon  and  subjec- 
tion to  her  husband.  As  to  education,  scarcely  anything  was  done  for  women  ; 
but  the  Protestant  clergy,  at  a  very  early  time,  began  to  demand  instruction 
in  reading  the  Bible  for  every  one,  and,  of  course,  even  the  women  shared 
this  blessing.  It  is  also  known  that  several  schools,  as  early  as  1684,  received 
girls,  who  were  occupied  with  reading,  writing,  and  the  catechism. 

Exhausted  with  her  heroic  struggles  against  Russia,  Finland  went  to  sleep 
after  the  annexation  in  1809.  When  she  began  to  awake,  many  questions 
were  pressing  upon  her.  Six  hundred  years  of  Swedish  rule  had  given  to 
her  upper  classes  the  stamp  of  Swedish  civilization.  Although  the  bulk  of 
the  population  (six-sevenths)  were  Finns,  speaking  an  entirely  different  lan- 
guage, they  were  obliged  to  send  their  children  to  Swedish  schools,  if  they 
wished  to  give  them  education.  The  law  courts  were  all  carried  on  in  Swed- 
ish, even  when  the  case  to  be  tried,  and  the  criminal  to  be  judged,  were 
Finnish.  But  the  awakening  sense  of  nationality  began  to  remove  these 
grave  disabilities,  which  threatened  to  create  artificial  boundaries  between 
the  people  and  the  educated  classes.  Many  women  joined  this  patriotic 
work,  but  many  more  devoted  themselves  to  a  deep,  religious  movement, 
which  spread  through  Finland  in  1840.  It  raised  and  united  them  by  its 
profound,  spiritual  influence,  but  at  the  same  time  left  them  indifferent  to 
their  social  or  legal  positions.  Every  attempt  to  raise  themselves  had  been 
condemned  as  irreconcilable  with  Christian  views.  The  women  were  silent, 
not  daring,  not  wishing  to  look  further  than  their  home  duties.  Their 
thoughts  were  simple  and  quiet,  like  the  lonely  lakes  in  their  fatherland,  and 
they  scarcely  dreamed  of  any  other  responsibilities,  than  those  concerning 
the  husband's  dinner  and  the  childrens'  clothes. 

But  Fredrika  Bremer  came,  and  with  her  a  fresh  breeze,  which  moved  the 
surface  of  those  calm  waters.  The  seed  which  that  noble  woman  planted 
reached  also  Finland.  Her  "  Hertha  "  roused  sharp  discussions,  which  were 
the  beginning  of  the  present  movement,  and  Miss  Adelaide  Ehrenrooth,  the 
first  Finnish  authoress  upon  the  woman  question,  made  her  appearance.  In 
1863,  a  bill  was  passed,  which  granted  an  unmarried  woman's  majority  at 
twenty-five,  but  on  application  to  the  local  authorities,  and  if  no  reasonable 
objection  is  made  to  her  request,  it  is  possible  for  a  young  woman  at  twenty- 
one  to  obtain  a  special  certificate  of  majority.  In  1878  women  obtained  the 
right  to  equal  inheritance  with  their  brothers. 

The  friends  of  women,  however,  concentrated  their  work  upon  the  higher 
education  of  girls.  In  1795  tne  ^rst  girl's  high  school  had  been  established 
by  the  State,  which  afterward  increased  the  number  of  these  schools.  The 
capital,  Helsingfors,  had  one  of  seven  classes,  and  the  country  towns,  sev- 
eral of  four  classes.  But  as  long  as  the  education  they  gave  was  only  ele- 
mentary, and  none  of  them  led  to  the  University,  we  women  thought  we 
had  a  right  to  complain.     In    1873  some    University  teachers  opened    a 


390  International  Council  of  Women. 

woman's  academy  in  Helsingfors,  but  the  attempt  failed,  as  the  young  women 
had  not  sufficient  solid  preparation,  and  had  no  right  whatever  to  examina- 
tions or  further  study  in  the  University.  We  continued  to  demand  higher 
education.  In  a  little  country  it  is  easier  to  make  ourselves  heard,  and  some- 
times, the  last  months  before  the  gathering  of  the  Parliament,  our  intelligent 
and  enterprising  women  decided  to  have  an  article  upon  the  higher  education 
in  every  newspaper  over  the  whole  country,  all  in  the  same  week. 

In  1882  the  ladies  of  Kuopio,  led  by  Miss  Backlund,  Mrs.  Canth,  and 
Mrs.  Stenius,  issued  an  appeal  to  their  countrywomen  to  support  a  scheme 
for  higher  education  of  girls.  This  appeal  was  wickedly  called  an  "  ingenious 
stupidity,"  and  people  laughed  at  us  women,  who  gathered  in  large  public 
meetings  to  discuss  the  question  ;  but  the  State  now  appointed  a  committee 
for  the  organization  of  the  girls'  high  schools.  Two  high  schools  with  co- 
education, and  both  leading  to  the  University,  were  established  by  private 
societies.  Since  that,  every  new  year  has  won  us  some  new  victories.  The 
State  does  not  yet  wholly  maintain  any  co-educational  high  schools,  but 
gives  grants  to  several  of  them.  Besides  that,  it  at  present  maintains  eight 
Swedish  and  six  Finnish  girls'  high  schools.  The  University  is  still  closed 
to  us,  the  clerical  party  being  its  faithful  watchers ;  but  bills  for  the  legal  ad- 
mission of  women  to  the  University,  are  introduced  to  every  new  Parlia- 
ment, and  we  hope  soon  to  take  this  last  fortress.* 

By  special  permission  we,  however,  can  enter  the  University,  and  twelve 
ladies  have  passed  its  degrees.  Between  1870  and  1880  our  first  lady  doctor 
of  philosophy,  Miss  Emma  Astrcem,  and  our  first  lady  physician,  Miss 
Rosina  Heikel,  took  their  degrees.  Miss  Astrcem  is  lecturer  in  a  college 
and  Miss  Heikel  is  appointed  physician  for  women  and  children  of  the 
poor,  in  Helsingfors.  Those  young  women,  who  do  not  go  to  the  University, 
enter  a  college  or  "  pedagogical  class,"  as  we  call  them,  when  they  have 
finished  their  high  schools  of  seven  classes.  In  the  colleges  they  stay  three 
years,  and  there  they  also  can  be  prepared  to  be  teachers  in  girls'  high 
schools  and  some  kinds  of  boys'  schools.  In  that  case  they,  however,  have 
to  pass  an  examination  in  pedagogy  before  the  professor  in  that  science. 
Girls  who  wish  to  undertake  practical  work,  enter  needlework,  industrial, 
commercial,  and  dairy  schools.  The  daughters  of  the  people  obtain  a  good 
and  thorough  education  during  six  or  seven  years  in  the  public  schools, 
which  are  partly  free.  The  State  has  maintained  these  schools  since  1865  ; 
there  are  at  present  173  for  girls  and  465  mixed.  It  is  significant  that  every 
year  scores  of  young  women  from  the  best  families,  undertake  the  public- 
school  teacher's  hard  work,  for  which  they  are  preparing  themselves  in 
special  training-colleges  of  four  years'  courses.     It  is  the  same  if  the  mother 

*  Since  this  article  was  prepared,  three  houses  in  our  Parliament,  namely,  the  Nobility,  the 
Bourgeoisie,  and  the  Peasants,  have  passed  the  bill  for  the  legal  admission  of  women  to  the 
University.  The  clergymen,  by  a  small  majority  of  their  number,  opposed  it.  Women  are  also 
permitted  to  become  members  of  the  Poor  Law  Committee. 


Political  Conditions.  391 

is  dressed  in  silks  or  wears  poor  clothes,  if  only  she  is  a  loving  mother,  and 
so  we  Finns  love  our  poor,  dear  Finland  with  a  burning  patriotism,  and  our 
highest  wish  is  to  make  the  whole  nation  happy  and  free  from  the  yoke  of 
ignorance. 

'  As  to  female  employment,  we  have  comparatively  great  liberty.  Women 
occupy  situations  in  the  post  and  telegraph  offices,  as  clerks  and  cashiers 
in  the  civil  service,  banks,  railways,  newspaper  offices.  Many  are  shop-keep- 
ers, or  occupied  in  printing  and  book-binding,  and  as  heads  of  workshops. 
They  can  be  teachers  in  all  kinds  of  girls'  and  in  several  boys'  schools.  It 
is  not  unusual  that  a  woman  is  a  tutor  in  languages  throughout  all  the  classes 
in  a  boys'  high  school.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  they  never 
receive  the  same  salaries  as  men,  even  for  identical  work.  I  don't  know  if 
it  is  true,  but  people  have  told  me  that  in  a  school  board  in  the  country,  the 
members  allowed  twenty  dollars  a  year  for  the  food  of  the  male  teacher's 
cow,  but  only  fifteen  dollars  for  the  female  teacher's  cow.  I  think  it  was 
rather  hard  for  the  poor  cow,  who  had  to  suffer  for  the  sex  of  her  owner. 

As  to  the  Finnish  women's  rights  as  citizens,  the  have  had  they  munic- 
ipal vote  over  the  whole  country,  since  1879.  They  are  also  members  on 
school  boards  for  all  girls'  and  mixed  schools,  and  possess  the  right  to  pub- 
lish newspapers,  and  the  country  seems  not  to  have  been  in  any  danger  since 
we  obtained  these  rights. 

Since  1863  bills  and  petitions  affecting  women  have  been  introduced  to  every 
new  legislative  assembly.  As  to  married  women's  property,  we  have  not  yet 
won  more  than  just  a  step  forward,  "  as  much  as  is  consistent  with  mainte- 
nance of  the  husband's  authority." 

In  literature  we  have  many  good  friends.  I  will  only  mention  our  much- 
beloved  poet,  Topelius,  who,  as  long  ago  as  1840,  wrote  an  eloquent 
appeal  to  the  Finnish  mothers  to  share  in  the  great  national  work  of  teach- 
ing the  neglected  and  despised  Finnish  language  to  their  children.  "  With- 
out women,"  he  said,  "  no  great  idea  can  be  left  as  an  inheritance  to  future 
generations."  He,  also,  as  the  rector  of  the  University,  attempted  to  open 
it  for  women,  but  political  changes  in  Russia  checked  his  efforts. 

Among  the  women  themselves  Miss  Ehrenrooth  and  Miss  Ongelin  were 
the  earliest  writers,  subsequently  followed  by  Mrs.  Canth,  Mrs.  Loefgren, 
Mrs.  Stenius,  Miss  Hagman,  and  other  ladies.  Mrs.  Canth's  powerfully- 
written  drama,  "A  Workman's  Wife,"  filled  the  National  Theater  evening 
after  evening,  with  a  deeply-moved  public,  and  at  once  made  the  question 
of  married  women's  property,  the  question  of  the  day.  We  are  few  workers, 
but  we  are  a  brave  set."  There  is  a  saying  that  if  you  tell  Finnish  ladies 
about  some  disabilities  concerning  women  in  your  country,  they  will  look  at 
you  with  great  surprise  and  ask,  "  But  why  do  you  allow  it?  "  quite  as  if  it 
was  in  your  power  to  remove  them. 

In  1884  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Loefgren  and  other  ladies  founded  the  "Finnish 


392  International  Council  of  Women. 

Women's  Union,"  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  at  this  Council.  It 
was  looked  upon  with  great  suspicion  at  first  by  the  general  public.  "  What 
do  these  ladies  want?"  asked  the  conservatives.  "  Why  can  not  they  be 
married  off  at  once  and  have  done  with  it?"  But  we  did  not  mind;  we 
only  worked.  At  first  we  started  an  office  for  promoting  the  employment  of 
women — one  department  for  ladies,  the  other  for  servants.  We  then  sent  a 
petition  to  the  town  council  of  Helsingfors  to  appoint  a  lawyer  for  the  poor, 
by  which  poor  wives  might  obtain  legal  aid  and  advice  without  payment,  in 
the  troubles  caused  perhaps  by  a  drunken  or  unfaithful  husband.  Once  a  year 
we  publish  a  review  called  Excelsior,  a  volume  of  about  200  pages,  printed 
in  Swedish  and  Finnish,  both  of  which  languages  are  spoken  in  Finland.  We 
also  offer  prizes  for  the  best  essays  on  questions  concerning  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  women,  and  arrange  lectures  and  publish  pamphlets.  As  our 
strength  is  limited  in  a  little  country,  we  can  not  divide  our  efforts,  but  deal 
with  all  subjects  affecting  women.  Our  permanent  committee  for  the  dress 
reform,  arranges  lectures  and  exhibitions  of.  dress  models.  This  question  is 
of  grave  importance  for  our  poor  nation,  living  in  a  cold  climate,  where  it 
ought  to  be  the  women's  duty  not  to  repeat  the  follies  and  luxuries  of  richer 
nations  living  in  warmer  climates. 

Public  opinion  in  Finland  towards  us,  is  changing  wonderfully,  and  people 
frequently  tell  us  that  they  are  not  our  enemies,  only  slow  friends.  Many 
women,  who  from  religious  or  other  motives  do  not  join  the  suffrage  work, 
are  active  supporters  of  temperance  or  social  purity  work,  these  questions 
and  also  that  of  co-education,  being  at  present  subjects  of  great  interest  for 
the  whole  country.  We  expect  to  find  many  good  workers  for  the  cause  of 
women  in  the  generations  growing  up  under  their  influences.  True,  con- 
servatism on  one  hand  and  materialism  on  the  other,  put  difficulties  in  our 
way,  but  we  never  doubt  that  the  victory  will  be  ours.  It  is  true  we  Finns 
are  a  little  slow;  we  like  to  know  people  thoroughly  before  we  make  friends. 
But  when  we  once  grasp  your  hand,  we  hold  it  fast  through  thick  and  thin. 
And  in  a  poor  nation,  with  a  hard  time  behind  her  and  an  uncertain  future 
before  her,  man  and  woman  are  more  nearly  equal.  The  woman  becomes  more 
the  honest,  faithful  fellow-worker  than  the  toy,  and  the  grave  questions  of  life 
find  easier  places  to  sow  their  seeds.  And  if  we  women  only  are  earnest  in 
our  belief,  earnest  in  our  work,  nothing  can  withstand  us.  If  there  is  truth 
in  an  idea,  nothing  can  withstand  it.  When  you  see  the  large  snow-fields  of 
Siberia,  with  their  endless  ice  and  snow,  and  you  see  nature  dark,  silent, 
mourning,  you  think  she  is  the  captive  of  an  eternal  winter.  But  let  the 
spirit  of  the  spring  work  his  silent  work,  and  nature  will  break  her  yoke 
irresistibly,  gloriously,  and  you  shall  see  those  same  desolate  fields  covered 
with  the  sweet  blossoms  of  the  Arctic-  spring. 


Political  Conditions.  393 

WOMAN'S    RIGHTS    IN    DENMARK. 

By  Kirstine  Frederiksen,  of  Copenhagen. 

It  was  the  social  and  political  storms  of  the  French  revolution  which 
aroused  Mary  Wolstonecraft  and  generally  called  forth  an  examination  of 
woman's  position  in  society  ;  and  it  was  the  movement  of  1848  in  Denmark, 
giving  to  men  their  political  rights,  which  drew  attention  to  the  question  of 
woman's  rights.  Under  the  pseudonym  of  Clara  Raphael  and  in  the  form 
cf  a  collection  of  letters,  Miss  Mathilde  Fibiger,  a  girl  of  nineteen  summers 
(1830-1872),  gave  a  general  outline  of  those  demands  for  woman's  personal 
independence  which  afterwards,  by  other  persons  and  under  other  forms, 
have  received  more  precise  and  more  definite  expression.  She  was  evidently 
strongly  moved  by  that  national  enthusiasm  which,  during  the  three  years' 
war  with  Germany,  pervaded  the  whole  Danish  nation,  and  for  a  time  her 
book  was  borne  along  by  that  current.  But  when  the  enthusiasm  subsided, 
and  her  ideas  were  viewed  as  purely  practical  issues,  they  met  with  an  over- 
powering opposition.  She  was  actually  forced  to  lay  down  her  pen  and  she 
sought  rescue  in  a  practical  position  ;  she  became  the  first  female  telegraphist — 
a  position  at  that  time,  by  no  means  agreeable. 

Miss  Pauline  Worm  (1825-1883)  had  stronger  nerves.  Always  ready  for 
battle  and  everywhere  at  hand  when  needed,  she  fought  bravely  with  pen  and 
tongue  for  woman's  rights.  Before  her  no  woman  in  Denmark  had  dared 
to  appear  in  public  as  an  orator  ;  she  broke  the  spell.  Nevertheless,  though 
her  poetical  talent  and  the  clearness  of  her  intellect  ought  to  have  given  her 
rank  among  our  best  men,  she  had  to  wear  out  her  life  as  a  school-teacher  in 
the  provinces.  Another  atmosphere  was  needed  ;  the  barometer  must  fall 
before  birds  will  fly.  Those  two  women  stood  as  outposts  so  far  in  the  front 
of  their  time,  that  they  could  not  expect  to  live  and  see  the  victory. 

Some  progress,  however,  came  with  the  political  reorganization  of  1848. 
In  1857  daughters  acquired  equal  rights  of  inheritance  with  sons,  and,  like 
men,  women  became  of  age  at  the  twenty-fifth  birthday.  In  i860  an  impor- 
tant step  was  taken  toward  opening  up  the  way  for  women  to  economical  inde- 
pendence ;  they  were  admitted  to  graduation  and  appointment  as  teachers  in 
the  public  schools.  Miss  Pauline  Worm  had  often  agitated  this  question  in 
her  own  circle,  but  it  was  Bishop  Monrad,  at  that  time  Minister  of  State, 
who,  without  any  connection  with  said  agitation,  took  up  the  matter,  made 
it  a  practical  issue,  and  carried  it  through.  Gradually  people  began  to  be 
used  to  see  ladies  as  clerks  in  the  offices,  private  as  well  as  public. 

With  1870,  which  year  is  generally  designated  as  a  literary  new-birth  in 
Denmark,  a  brighter  day  also  began  to  dawn  over  woman.  John  Stuart 
Mill's  book  was  translated  by  Dr.  Brandes  and  extensively  read.  The 
poets — Jens  Hostrup,  Bjornson,  Ibsen,  etc. — took  up  the  question  of 
woman's  rights,  and  treated  it  in  their  best  books  and  from  a  very  liberal 
point  of  view.  In  1879  women  were  admitted  to  the  University — that  is, 
26 


394  International  Council  of  Women. 

to  participation  in  the  highest  education  the  State  offers.  Most,  however, 
of  what  has  been  done  in  Denmark  for  the  education  of  women,  is  due  to 
one  single  lady,  Miss  Natalie  Zahle,  who,  without  any  support  from  the  State, 
has  created  an  institute  of  female  education  which  far  exceeds  any  of  the 
schools  for  boys  which  the  State  maintains  with  such  great  sacrifice  of  money. 
During  the  war  with  Germany,  1 863-1 864,  women  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
nurse  the  sick  and  wounded,  but  in  vain ;  none  but  male  help  was  tolerated 
in  the  hospitals.  But  in  1875  an  organization  of  female  nurses  was  founded, 
and  in  1876  a  Danish  division  of  the  Red  Cross  was  established.  In  the 
same  year  women  began  to  form  associations  with  the  purpose  of  fighting 
the  public  prostitution,  protecting  animals,  and,  first  and  foremost,  improv- 
ing the  general  social  position  of  women. 

Five  young  ladies,  four  singers  and  a  cornetist,  then  gave 
the  song,  "The  Yellow  Ribbon,"  words  by  Marie  Le  Baron. 

Miss  Anthony.     I  now  present  Mrs.  Zadel  B.  Gustafson. 

Mrs.  Gustafson.  *  *  *  In  Europe,  or  to  speak  more  definitely,  in 
Sweden,  Denmark,  France,  Germany,  Holland,  and  Great  Britain,  my 
observations  have  led  me  to  conclude,  that,  although  in  all  these  countries, 
and  particularly  in  Great  Britain,  agitation  is  going  on  in  the  direction  of 
conditional  woman  suffrage,  yet,  were  it  secured,  it  would  not,  for  some 
considerable  period,  mean  more  than  an  accession  of  subservient  force,  to 
the  power  and  purposes  of  the  male  political  organizations  of  those  coun- 
tries; while,  from  what  I  have  observed  in  this,  my  own  country  in  former 
years,  and  within  the  last  fortnight  of  this  significant  year,  I  am  led  to  be- 
lieve that  woman  suffrage  would  mean,  adding  to  its  present  political  strength 
an  alliance  with  kindred  force,  an  alliance  which  would  bring  to  it  a  pre- 
ponderance of  the  trained  moral  impulse,  the  loving  courage,  mental  lucidity 
and  intuitional,  spiritual  wealth  which  will  ultimately  everywhere,  be  the 
special  contribution  of  woman's  ballot  to  political  and  social  progress.  *  *  * 

American  civilization  is  not  merely  a  new  civilization  ;  it  is,  so  far, 
the  new  civilization  of  the  world.  Its  life,  scarcely  distended  or  dis- 
turbed by  its  vast  and  various  influx  from  the  veins  of  nearly  all  other 
human  races,  is  like  that  of  all  childhood,  elastic,  swift,  full  of  heat  and 
motion,  and  thereby  differentiated  from  all  previous  civilization  into  one 
that  brims  with  the  possibilities  which  give  birth  to  and  establish  ideals, 
which  by  essentially  transcending  must  disregard  the  old — if  their  claim  be 
only  that  of  antiquity — to  make  way  for  the  new.  *  *  *  If  my  conclu- 
sions are  correct,  obviously,  the  women  of  America  have  special,  heavy 
responsibilities  in  this  matter  of  proving  woman's  citizenship  to  be  a  ques- 
tion, not  of  sex  immunity  nor  sex  responsibility,  but  of  race  progress. 

To  rightly  consider  and  rightly  act  upon  this  responsibility,  let  us  remem- 
ber at  the  start  and  bear  steadily  in  mind  during  all  the  way  to  our  goal,  that 


Political  Conditions.  395 

woman  suffrage  is  not  a  question  of  whether  we  shall  use  political  power  more 
or  less  wisely  than  men ;  of  whether  we  are  greater  fools,  more  dupeable  or 
more  purchaseable  than  they  ;  it  is  not  a  question  of  whether  the  majority  of 
women  yet  know  enough  to  want  it,  or  whether  the  best  women  will  ignore 
the  right  and  the  worst  women  use  it  when  it  is  gained ;  it  is  not  a  question 
properly  affected  by  any  of  the  arguments  or  debates  pro  or  con  as  to  our 
fitness  in  body,  brain,  heart,  or  tendency — in  balancing  which,  so  much  time 
and  force  have  for  so  many  years  been  expended.  It  is  only  and  exactly 
what  it  has  been  from  the  first — a  simple  question  of  whether  the  ballot  is 
useful  to  mankind  as  a  proper  instrument  in  the  management  of  human  affairs. 

If  it  is,  then  it  is  as  useful  for  women  as  for  men,  and  is  their  right 
and  their  responsibility  on  all  grounds  which  make  it  such  for  men. 
Let  us  stand  to  this  position  until  we  have  won  its  fruits.  It  is  impregna- 
ble. By  holding  to  it  ourselves  and  keeping  our  opponents,  both  women 
and  men,  to  this  point,  we  save  time,  we  save  force,  and  we  promote  con- 
viction by  concentrating,  with  the  threefold  power  of  our  simplicity,  single- 
ness, and  resolution — opposition  and  advocacy  alike  upon  the  single,  central 
truth. 

The  first  thing  we  want  for  the  race  is  health,  sanity  of  body  and  mind.  We 
want  these  before  all  things  else,  that  we  may  secure  all  other  good  by  means  of 
these.  We  have  heard,  during  this  memorable  week,  a  various  and  forcible  pre- 
sentation of  the  evils  which  sap  the  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual  life  of  the 
race,  and  threaten,  if  not  overcome,  to  degrade  humanity  even  beyond  our 
marvelous  powers  of  recuperation.  And  we  have  listened  to  many  rational, 
practical,  and  sound  suggestions  as  to  the  remedies  for  these  evils.  Rem- 
edy must,  of  course,  begin  at  the  root ;  and  among  all  these  evils  the  funda- 
mental one  is  the  alcoholic  habit,  because  we  must  have  sober  people  before 
we  can  have  people  who  will  think  rationally  on  any  subject,  or  be  able  to 
form  and  carry  out  any  rational  purpose.  *  *  *  Now,  this  traffic  exists 
and  flourishes  under  laws  made,  executed,  and  defended  by  men,  in  whom 
the  alcoholic  habit,  appetite,  and  heredity  have  wrought  so  stultifying  an 
effect  that  it  is  useless  to  look  to  them  for  any  initiative,  adequate  to  the  im- 
minent and  awful  necessities  of  the  case. 

The  drink  evil  will  never  be  mastered  until  we  have  the  vote  of  women  to 
the  rescue — a  fact  thoroughly  appreciated  by  the  liquor-dealers  and  acted  upon 
by  them,  too.  For  the  sake  of  this  one  cause  alone,  the  overthrow  of  the  drink 
traffic,  to  say  nothing  of  our  duty  in  every  good  cause  which  the  vote  can  pro- 
mote— a  woman's  vote  just  as  much  and  for  precisely  the  same  reasons  as  a 
man's — for  this  one  cause  alone  it  is  our  duty  to  so  press  for  our  right  of  suffrage 
that  we  shall  get  it ;  to  so  rouse  the  consciences  of  all  other  women,  and  to 
so  sting  and  quicken  the  self-respect  of  those  men  whose  lives  are  unques- 
tionably influenced  and  largely  guided  by  us — our  fathers,  husbands,  brothers, 
kand  sons — that  they  will  feel  we  neither  do  nor  can  respect  or  love  them  as 


396  International  Council  of  Women. 

we  wish  to  do,  and  as  they  need  and  we  need  that  we  should,  unless  they 
will  really  and  earnestly  do  all  in  their  power  to  help  us  in  removing  the 
shame,  theirs,  in  the  first  instance,  but  ours  also,  now  that  we  know  more  than 
we  did  of  our  disfranchisement.  We  must  work  with  infinite  patience  and 
determination,  and  with  a  persistence  as  courteous  as  unflinching,  among  the 
ignorant,  timid,  disaffected,  prejudiced,  selfish,  and  indifferent  of  our  own 
sex,  until  everyone  of  them  is  won  over  to  the  clear  realization  of  this  truth, 
that  they,  that  their  children,  that  the  whole  race — men  almost  more  pro- 
foundly than  women — need  the  full  enfranchisement  of  women. 

It  is  our  duty  to  push  this  matter  of  our  franchise  rights  and  responsibili- 
ties so  logically,  so  forcibly,  so  unceasingly,  by  every  proper  available  means 
and  by  the  intelligent  devising  of  new  means,  that  the  whole  earnestness  and 
dignity  of  womanhood  shall  be  seen  and  felt  with  overwhelming,  convincing 
power,  gracious  but  strong,  and  not  to  be  gainsaid.     *    *     * 

It  has  been  argued  that  the  power  of  effective  combination  for  a  given  end 
is  not  possessed  by  women  ;  that  their  personal  feelings  and  emotions  always 
have  got  and  always  will  get  the  better  of  any  effort  in  this  direction.  The 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of  the  United  States  demolishes  this 
argument.  They  have  entered  into  association  for  securing  certain  ends, 
precisely  as  men  have  hitherto  done,  sinking  personal  preposessions,  preju- 
dices, and  antipathies.  *  *  *  Men  have  had  long  practice  and  have 
gradually  acquired  the  lesson  that  the  power  of  any  combined  effort — i.  e., 
party  power — lies  in  having  a  fixed  principle,  a  determined  purpose  to 
effectuate  it,  a  clear  plan  and  plain  code  as  to  the  modus operandi ;  and  in  being 
individually  pledged  to  these,  irrespective  of  all  other  merely  personal  con- 
siderations. In  spite- of  the  lack  of  those  advantages  and  rights  which  men 
have  claimed  and  used,  and  while  still  carrying  the  burden  of  all  their  polit- 
ical, social,  religious,  and  personal  disabilities,  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  is  as  thoroughly  disciplined,  coherent,  resolute,  and  practical- 
working  an  organization  as  exists  in  the  world  anywhere  to-day.     *     *     * 

Being  disfranchised,  our  weapons  against  the  drink  evil  and  against 
our  legal  disabilities,  have  been  hitherto  moral  suasion  and  prayer.  Both 
methods  are  as  old  as  the  race  itself.  Moral  suasion  may  in  the  long 
run — not  always — meet  the  needs  of  the  moral  natures,  but  national 
and  social  history  have  shown  that  it  is  utterly  inadequate  to  save  the 
great  masses  of  mankind  in  their  various  degrees  of  moral  and  immoral  ten- 
dencies from  any  universal  danger.  As  to  prayer,  surely  essential  prayer 
proves  itself  such,  by  our  doing  as  fully  as  we  possibly  can,  our  part  toward 
realizing  the  object  for  which  we  pray.  To  me  it  seems  often  suffered  to 
degenerate  into  a  time -wasting  formality ;  I  think  we  pray  too  much  ver- 
bally and  publicly,  and  too  little  in  our  thoughts  and  work.  The  last  kind 
of  praying  is,  I  am  convinced,  the  highest  spiritual  energizer  of  human  life, 
the  true  source  of  an  inexhaustible  capacity  to  achieve  and  progress.     So  we 


Political  Conditions.  397 

must  realize  our  prayers  in  our  votes.  No  thoughtful  woman  imagines  that 
the  right  of  suffrage  is  other  than  a  tremendous  responsibility,  involving  as 
a  duty  a  wide  range  of  laborious  and  practical  studies  of  life  in  its  individual, 
social,  religious,  political,  and  international  departments,  and  that  the  use 
of  the  ballot  means  anything  less  than  a  deliberate  share  in  the  labors  and 
blessings  of  the  progressive,  or  in  the  guilty  inertia  of  the  retrogressive 
movement  of  the  world.  In  the  past,  men,  for  the  most  part  in  ignorant 
co-operation  with  little-understood  processes  of  evolution,  have  kept  their 
hands  on  the  leverage  of  human  affairs.  It  has  served  to  check  and  pervert 
their  own  moral  development  and  to  intensify  in  them,  the  despotic,  in  us, 
the  servile  tendencies,  common  in  the  germ — as  are" all  human  powers,  vir- 
tues, and  vices — to  the  original  individuality  of  both  sexes.  We  must  shame 
out  the  tyrants  in  men,  and  the  cowards  in  ourselves,  and  insist  upon  our 
equal  partnership  with  men  in  all  the  responsibilities  and  hopes  of  life. 

We  want  to  get  rid  of  the  social  evil.  We  want  to  have  it  recognized 
that  male  morality  is  everywhere  as  essential  to  human  progress  as  is  the 
morality  of  women  ;  that  in  fact  the  one  can  not  exist  in  any  complete  sense 
without  the  other.  *  *  *  We  want  better  and  cleaner  lives  in  our 
homes  ;  we  want  an  honest  system  of  industries  and  trades,  that  we  may 
have  a  distribution  of  the  whole  increment,  in  juster  proportion  to  the  labor, 
sacrifices,  and  risks  involved  ;  we  want  sanitary  reforms,  reforms  of  laws, 
civil,  international,  and  local ;  we  want  the  prison  system  changed  from  crim- 
inal-making into  regenerating  agencies ;  we  want  the  so-called  philanthropies 
and  charities,  which  too  often  are  so  clumsily  managed  that  they  eat  up  with 
their  own  red-tape  ramifications  the  sums  meant  to  relieve  the  necessitous, 
to  set  talent  free  and  touch  worthy  struggle  with  opportunities  ;  we  want 
these  transmuted,  so  that  opportunity  and  desert  come  together  to  the  full- 
est advantage.  We  want  every  good  thing  about  which  we  theorize,  and 
for  which  we  strive  in  groups,  and  leagues,  and  under  many  names.  How- 
shall  we  get  them  ?  By  getting  the  ballot  and  sweeping  out  the  drink — the 
most  powerful  foe  to  the  spirit  of  civilization  ;  the  worst  enemy  of  religion 
and  morals;  the  greatest  universal  destroyer  of  physical  health,  of  sanity 
of  mind,  of  spiritual  life.     *     *     * 

Let  us,  as  women,  cultivate  the  habit  of  thinking,  not  of  what  we  have 
been  taught  to  consider  our  province  or  sphere,  and  of  what  within  such 
limits  we  can  or  can  not  do — there  is  nothing  which  we  can  not  do,  if  we 
resolve  to  do  it.  Let  us  try  to  realize  that  our  sphere  is  determined  by  no 
ipse  dixit  but  that  of  our  own  powers.  Men,  those  who  have  real  acumen, 
know  this  very  well.  But  that  will  do  us  no  good  until  we  know  it  perfectly 
well  ourselves,  and  act  upon  the  knowledge.  There  is  not  a  horse  of  sound 
lung  and  limb  in  all  the  world,  which  could  not  keep  from  its  back  or  unseat 
any  man  undertaking  to  subdue  it,  if  it  knew  its  own  power ;  it  does  not 
know  it,  and  so  we  can  master  it.     We  are  told  that  "  knowledge  is  power." 


398  International  Council  of  Women. 

Let  us  put  this  sentence  yet  more  explicitly,  and  say  rather  that  knowledge 
of  power  is  power. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  keep  the  promise  of  last  evening,  and  present  to 
you  Mrs.  Clara  Neymann,  of  New  York,  who  will  give  the  closing  word  of 
this  session. 

SENTIMENTALISTS!    IN    POLITICS. 

Mrs.  Neymann.  I  am  glad — nay,  I  am  happy  to  see  this  day — to  be  with 
you  on  this  memorable  occasion.  It  is  a  proud  day  for  the  women  of  Amer- 
ica. Those  represented  here  show  that  woman  can  excel  in  devotion  to 
principles,  devotion  to  intellectual  pursuits,  devotion  to  the  practical  work. 
Miss  Anthony,  Mrs.  Stanton,  Mrs.  Stone  have  verified  by  their  own  lives 
and  actions  the  theories  they  have  taught  to  us ;  to  know  them,  to  be  with 
them,  is  not  to  have  lived  in  vain.  If  I  am  not  jubilant  in  the  words  I  shall 
speak  to-night  it  is  because  I  remember  the  poet's  words,  "  Success  makes  a 
harder  struggle  necessary." 

Our  Republic  was  ushered  in  by  the  philosophy  of  reason.  Reason  and 
justice  applied  to  human  affairs,  mark  the  incoming  spirit  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  But  this  high  priest  of  the  mind  has  of  late  disappeared  from  our 
political  life,  and  we  have  in  its  stead  sentimentality  and  unreason.  Our 
cause,  woman's  enfranchisement,  though  far  advanced  among  the  thinking 
public,  would  be  triumphant  if  it  was  not  for  this  new  foe  which  judges  and 
assigns  things  not  according  to  their  intrinsic  value,  but  to  personal  likes 
and  dislikes.  Petty  arguments,  selfish  ambitions,  mercenary  motives  have 
taken  the  place  of  genuine  patriotism,  and  our  just  demand  to  help  man 
in  the  arduous  business  of  government  is  opposed  upon  sentimental  grounds. 
Sentimentality  is  partial,  while  reason  and  justice  are  universal,  and  apply 
to  all  and  each  alike.  They  tell  us  that  politics  is  unclean  J  while  it  is,  next 
to  religion,  the  most  sacred  occupation  of  the  civilized  man  or  woman.  The 
pursuit  of  politics,  rightly  conceived  and  honorably  pursued,  calls  into 
activity  the  highest  motives  and  the  most  exacting  virtues  of  the  human 
soul — self-sacrifice  and  self-devotion.  And  these  virtues  woman  has  all 
through  the  ages  practiced  in  her  home-sphere,  preparing  herself  for  her 
higher  mission — a  political  reformer.  Since  her  home-sphere  no  longer  re- 
mains her  exclusive  occupation,  she  must  now  offer  these  gifts  and  virtues  she 
has  developed,  and  which  every  true  man  admires,  upon  the  altar  of  her 
country  and  devote  herself  to  her  country's  welfare  and  her  country's  honor. 

Since  questions  of  peace,  of  arbitration,  of  reconciliation  have  superseded 
those  of  war  and  conquest,  it  is  folly,  sheer  sentimentality  to  still  hold  up 
the  mediasval  ideal  of  womanhood.  Men  who  hold  up  this  effete  ideal  are 
responsible  for  woman's  frailty  and  frivolity;  they  strengthen  by  their 
preference  of  weak  and  sentimental  girls  and  women,  all  the  folly  and  petti- 
ness we  suffragists  would  like  to  eradicate.  The  coming  woman  must  be 
strong  and  sweet.     She  must  come  from  her  well-ordered  home  and  bring 


Political  Conditions.  399 

grace  and  dignity  and  purity  into  our  public  and  political  life.  Life  means 
activity.  Let  us  make  our  actions  great  and  noble  and  far-reaching.  Give 
woman  freedom  for  a  wider  and  broader  exercise  of  her  best  gifts  and  virtues, 
as  the  basis  of  all  moral  action  is  freedom,  opportunity  for  the  full  exercise 
of  faculties.  We  have  no  desire  to  compete  with  man,  to  be  his  equal  in 
character  or  attainment ;  we  simply  ask  for  free  scope  and  an  open  field, 
leaving  the  result  to  the  discretion  of  every  individual  woman.  The  triumph 
of  republican  institutions,  a  genuine  democracy,  depends  upon  the  freedom 
of  all,  and  not  upon  the  monopoly  of  one  class  or  one  sex.  Thou,  America, 
for  this  scheme's  culmination,  for  this  thou  hast  been  created. 
Adjourned. 

Mrs.  Helen  M.  Gougar,  who  was  to  have  given  the  first 
address  of  this  session — her  subject,  "  Party,  Press  and  Peo- 
ple,"— was  called  home  by  a  death  in  her  family,  and  the  com- 
mittee was  compelled  to  withdraw  her  name  from  the  final 
edition  of  the  programme. 


SUNDAY,  APRIL  1,  1888. 

AFTERNOON  SESSION. 


RELIGI'OUS    SYMPOSIUM. 


Miss  Anthony.  The  meeting  will  be  opened  by  Mrs.  J.  P.  Newman, 
of  the  Metropolitan  Church,  of  this  city. 

Mrs.  Newman.  The  Psalms  of  David  are  beautiful  prayers,  and  so 
we  will  repeat  the  Nineteenth  Psalm,  beginning,  "The  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God."     (After  reading  the  Psalm,  Mrs.  Newman  continued.) 

On  this  beautiful,  bright  Easter  Sabbath  so  many  thoughts  are  coming 
into  our  hearts,  and  I  have  been  thinking  more  than  anything  else  how 
much  I  wish  my  name  was  Mary,  because  Mary  was  the  mother  of  our 
Lord  ;  and  when  she  was  told  that  she  was  to  be  the  mother  of  the  Lord, 
she  said  :  "  Be  it  unto  Thine  handmaiden  according  to  Thy  word."  And 
when  Jesus  was  asked  in  other  days  who  was  his  mother,  he  said : 
"Whosoever  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same 
is  my  mother,  and  sister,  and  brother."  And  to-day  we  are  brought  into 
that  beautiful  relationship  with  Christ. 

And,  then,  He  said  afterwards,  "  You  have  not  chosen  me,  but  I  have 
chosen  you  and  ordained  you  that  you  should  go  forth  and  bring  forth 
much  fruit,  and  whatsoever  you  shall  ask  the  Father  in  my  name  I  will 
do  it."  And  there  is  nothing  more  appropriate  than  the  great  prayer 
He  taught  his  disciples  when  He  was  on  the  earth.  And,  now,  while  we 
repeat  that  prayer  unitedly,  may  we  each  of  us  feel  that  it  enters  into 
our  lives  and  into  all  our  future.  (After  the  prayer,  all  joined  in  singing 
the  hymn,  "  Greeting,"  by  Longfellow.) 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  Mrs. 
Matilda  Joslyn  Gage,  of  New  York. 

WOMAN    IN    THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CHURCH. 

Mrs.  Gage.  To  me,  one  of  the  most  notable  things  connected  with  this 
Council  has  been  the  almost  universal  unanimity  with  which  the  delegates, 
both  ministerial  and  lay,  in  invocation  and  speech,  have  ignored  the  femi- 
nine in  the  Divinity.  So  notable  has  this  non-recognition  been,  that  the 
morning  when  I  presided  over  its  proceedings  I  was  in  some  little  trouble 
to  find  the  woman  far  enough  advanced  in  theology  to  recognize  the 
divine  motherhood,  but  eventually,  in  Isabella  Beecher  Hooker,  I  secured 
such  person  for  the  invocation  with  which  the  programme  of  the  Council 
demands  all  proceedings  should  be  opened.  The  almost  total  ignoring 
of  the    Divine   Motherhood    of  God   by  those  who   have   in   any  way 


Religious  Symposium.  401 

referred  to  the  Supreme  Power,  has  been  to  me  a  subject  of  profound 
surprise  and  astonishment. 

All  thoughtful  persons,  and  foremost  among  them  should  be  the  women 
here  represented,  must  be  aware  of  the  historical  fact  that  the  prevailing 
religious  idea  in  regard  to  woman  has  been  the  base  of  all  their  restric- 
tions and  degradation.  It  underlies  political,  legal,  educational,  industrial, 
and  social  disabilities  of  whatever  character  and  nature.  The  word  "God,'* 
which  simply  means  good,  has  everywhere  been  interpreted  by  the 
Christian  Church,  especially  for  the  last  hundreds  of  years,  as  well  as  by 
the  later  Jewish  theocracy,  as  of  but  one  gender — the  masculine  ;  and  it 
has  been  the  occasion  for  the  priesthood  of  both  dispensations  to  ignore 
the  feminine  principle  everywhere.  Inasmuch  as  history  teaches  us  that 
the  rack,  the  torture,  the  destruction  of  human  will,  the  degradation 
of  woman  for  the  past  eighteen  hundred  years,  have  been  depend- 
ent upon  masculine  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  based  upon  belief  in 
a  purely  masculine  divinity,  this  Council  has  been  to  me  a  dangerous 
evidence  of  woman's  ignorance  upon  this  most  important  of  questions. 
It  was  the  teaching  of  Aristotle  which  the  church  endorsed  under  penalty 
of  punishment  for  heresy  that  the  supreme  effort  of  nature  was  always  for 
the  masculine,  she  only  producing  the  feminine  when  balked  of  her  first 
intention. 

And  even  when  the  great  naturalist,  Linneaus,  of  whom  it  has  been  said 
he  made  the  frozen  plains  of  Lapland  to  blossom  like  fairy  fields,  first 
made  known  his  wonderful  sexual  system  of  plants,  the  basis  of  all  modern 
investigation  in  botany,  he  was  shunned  as  one  who  had  degraded  nature 
and  insulted  the  Most  High. 

It  is  especially  surprising  that  the  advocates  of  social  purity  fail  to 
recognize  the  femininity  of  the  divine — of  God  ;  that  they  alike  fail  to  see, 
to  speak  of,  and  to  address  the  Divine  Mother,  when  the  fact  of  this 
ignoring  by  the  church  and  by  man  has  resulted  in  the  creation  of  two 
codes  of  morals,  everywhere  recognized  in  society,  the  lax  for  man,  the 
strict  for  woman.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  theory  which  has  grown  out 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  church  in  regard  to  the  masculinity  of  God  and  the 
supreme  wickedness  of  woman,  the  world  would  not  now  be  filled  with 
the  grossness  and  moral  wrongs  which,  because  of  her  higher  nature,  are 
everywhere  made  to  fall  with  supreme  force  upon  woman. 

In  all  ancient  nations  we  find  goddesses  seated  everywhere  with  gods, 
in  many  instances  regarded  as  superior  to  them,  and  of  greater  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  the  universe.  Nor  had  this  idea  quite  died  out  at  the 
advent  of  Christianity.  To  the  majority  of  the  Christian  world  the 
early  history  of  the  church  is  entirely  unknown,  but  the  student  can  glean 
enough  to  show  that  the  equal  feminine  nature  of  the  divine  was  accepted 
bv  the  church. 


402  International  Council  of  Women. 

The  fact  that  upon  his  baptism  by  John,  the  Holy  Spirit  descended 
upon  Jesus  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  is  sufficient  to  prove  this  were  other 
testimony  wanting,  the  dove  among  all  ancient  nations  symbolizing  the 
feminine  principle.  It  is  also  remarkable  that  the  Hebrew  possesses  no 
masculine  gender  for  dove.  Not  until  after  his  baptism,  when  the  spirit, 
or  feminine  principle  of  the  divinity,  rested  upon  and  united  itself  with 
Him,  did  Jesus  take  up  his  ministry.  As  spirit  in  the  Hebrew  answers  to 
all  genders,  and  in  Greek  to  the  feminine  alone,  it  is  easy  to  see  the  false 
beliefs  engendered  by  church  teachings  as  to  the  masculinity  and  father- 
hood alone  of  God.  Our  records  of  the  first  three  Christian  centuries 
prove  that  even  the  early  and  oft-quoted  fathers  of  the  church  regarded 
the  third  person  of  the  Trinity  as  feminine. 

One  of  the  most  revered  ancient  scriptures  of  that  period,  "The 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews,"  in  use  during  the  second  century,  and 
of  great  authority,  taught  this,  Origen,  in  the  third  century  (A.  D.  230), 
quoting  from  it.  This  Gospel  was  believed  to  have  been  compiled  from 
still  older  manuscripts;  one  entitled  "  The  Oracles  and  Sayings  of  Christ," 
a  second  "  The  Gospel  Preaching  and  Doctrines  of  Peter."  The  great 
biblical  scholar,  Tischendorf,  to  whom  the  world  is  indebted  for  the  dis- 
covery of  the  famous  "  Sinaitic  Codex,"  and  almost  equally  for  the 
renowned  Vatican  Codex,  hidden  so  many  years  in  the  Vatican  palace  at 
Rome,  endorses  the  authenticity  of  this  Gospel,  believing  it  to  have  been 
in  use  by  Justin,  one  of  the  earliest  Christian  fathers,  whose  birth  is 
placed  at  A.  D.  89. 

Another  canonical  book  of  the  New  Testament,  now  lost,  was  known  as 
"The  Everlasting  Gospel,"  and  was  also  called  "The  Gospel  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  In  this  Jesus  is  represented  as  saying  :  "  My  mother,  the 
Holy  Ghost,  took  me."  The  Gnostics,  that  early  philosophical  division 
of  the  church  which  claimed  possession  of  the  only  true  Christianity, 
denominated  this  feminine  principle,  Sophia,  i.  e.,  wisdom.  With  the 
Kabalists,  the  feminine  signified  those  who  possessed  a  knowledge  of 
secret  things,  especially  of  a  divine  character.  The  "Divine  Spirit" 
was  conceded  to  be  the  feminine  Jehovah,  or  the  feminine  principle  of  the 
Godhead.  This  spirit  is  not  alone  the  comforter ;  it  is  the  animating 
power — the  life.  A  recent  article  upon  the  Esoteric  or  interior  meaning 
of  the  gospels  refers  to  spirit  in  this  wise  :  "  One  is  she,  the  spirit  of  the 
Elohim  of  life." 

The  primary  sense  of  spirit,  as  given  by  Webster,  is  to  drive,  to  rush. 
This  recalls  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  when  the  Spirit  descended  as  a  mighty, 
rushing  wind,  visible  as  tongues  of  fire.  Fire  possesses  the  same  radical 
sense  as  spirit,  signifying  to  rush.  Either  as  spirit  or  as  fire,  this  prin- 
ciple of  the  divinity  denotes  activity,  animation,  vigor,  force,  and  is 
equivalent  to  life  itself — the  creative  principle.     In  this  Council  there 


Religious  Symposium.  403 

have  been  frequent  references  to  the  creation.     Let  me  present  the  sub- 
ject on  the  same  Biblical  basis,  but  from  a  different  interpretation. 

God,  that  is  Father-Mother,  said:  "  Let  us  make  man  in  Our  image, 
after  Our  likeness."  So  God,  Father-Mother,  created  man,  male  and 
female  created  He-She,  them,  and  called  their  name  Adam,  a  generic 
term  signifying  "red;"  or,  as  has  been  interpreted,  "the  one  who 
blushes."  In  addition,  the  woman,  possessing  the  feminine  attributes  of 
the  Divinity,  received  a  specific  name,  significative  of  spirit,  of  life :  Eve  in 
our  translation,  Zoe  in  the  Greek,  both  signifying  life,  the  one  who  holds 
or  gives  life,  the  life-giver,  the  creative  principle,  in  which  respect  the 
woman  possesses  superiority  over  the  man. 

The  Old  Testament,  falsely  translated  as  it  has  been,  full  of  mistakes 
and  interpolations  as  it  is  known  to  be,  is  pronounced  in  its  recognition 
of  a  feminine  principle  in  the  Divinity.  The  word  Jehovah,  too  holy  to 
be  spoken  by  the  Jew,  was  formed  by  the  union  of  Jah-Eve,  signifying 
both  the  masculine  and  the  feminine,  while  El  Shaddai,  translated  "The 
Almighty,"  is  used  only  when  some  action  of  the  Divine  nature  express- 
ive of  the  feminine  is  required.  Its  external  signification  is  purely 
feminine. 

During  the  lapse  of  ages  and  growing  materiality  of  the  world  the 
femininity  of  the  Divine  was  forgotten,  its  holiness,  or  wholeness,  lost, 
and  until  again  recognized  humanity  mourns.  Various  bodies,  material 
and  mystical,  lament  the  "lost  name,"  among  them,  the  Masons,  the  inner 
meaning  of  whose  rites,  not  understood  by  themselves,  is  based  upon  it. 
Through  ignorance,  prejudice,  and  fraud,  the  feminine  having  been  lost, 
God  has  been  presented  to  both  Jew  and  Christian  as  solely  masculine. 
The  wholeness  of  the  Divine  name  will  not  be  restored  until  the  feminine 
is  again  recognized  as  a  component  part  of  the  Divinity. 

The  Lord's  Prayer,  "  Hallowed  be  Thy  name,"  is  an  entreaty  for  the 
restoration  of  the  "wholeness"  of  this  name — for  a  recognition  of  the 
feminine  in  this  name.  It  lies  within  the  power  of  each  person  uttering 
this  prayer  to  answer  it  himself — herself;  and  the  remaining  portions, 
"Thy  kingdom  come,  Thy  will  be  done  as  in  heaven  so  on  earth,"  de- 
pend upon  a  restoration  of  the  wholeness  of  the  Divine  name  by  a  recog- 
nition of  the  feminine  in  the  Divinity. 

By  no  external  miracle  is  the  world  to  be  taught  truth.  The  kingdom 
of  heaven  lies  within  ;  each  person  can  hasten  its  advent  for  himself,  her- 
self. There  is  abundant  proof  that  even  under  this  partial  recognition  of 
the  motherhood  or  femininity  of  God,  women  were  officially  recognized 
in  the  early  ministrations  of  the  Christian  church.  They  were  ordained 
to  the  ministry,  officiated  as  deacons,  administered  the  rites  of  baptism 
and  the  Lord's  supper,  promulgated  tenets,  interpreted  doctrines,  and 
founded  sects  to  which  even  their  names  were  given.     From  Marcellina,  in 


404  International  Council  of  Women. 

the  second  century  (A.  D.  160),  a  body  of  the  church  took  its  name. 
Her  adherents  were  called  Marcellinions,  the  same  as  the  followers  of 
Huss,  Luther,  Wesley,  Calvin,  and  Swedenborg,  at  a  later  period,  have 
been  known  as  Hussites,  Lutherans,  Wesleyans,  Calvinists  and  Swedenbor- 
gians.  Although  the  writings  of  Marcellina  have  shared  the  fate  of  many 
canonical  books,  having  been  lost,  her  memory  has  descended  to  us  fra- 
grant with  the  deeds  of  a  good  life.  As  Deborah  was  the  only  Jewish  ruler 
whom  the  sacred  scribes,  historians,  and  prophets  passed  by  unrebuked, 
so  we  find  the  memory  of  Marcellina  free  from  calumny  and  reproach. 
Her  life  and  her  doctrines  were  in  accord. 

Maxamilla,  a  prophetess,  also  lived  in  the  second  century — the  latter 
part,  about  A.  D.'igo.  Her  writings  are  not  extant.  The  present  version 
of  the  New  Testament  mentions,  by  name,  women  who  preached,  and  to 
whose  services  the  early  church  was  largely  indebted.  In  the  latter  half 
of  the  fourth  century  and  first  half  of  the  fifth  the  woman  deaconate  of 
the  East  had  reached  a  position  of  great  importance. 

All  the  later  Greek  Fathers — Basil,  Gregory  of  Nyassa,  Theodoret,  and 
others — refer  to  it,  and  notices  of  individual  deaconesses  become  frequent 
in  church  annals.  By  the  sixth  century  the  office  of  deaconess  had  become 
entirely  sacerdotal,  forming  a  link  between  the  secular  and  spiritual  clergy. 
As  part  of  this  body,  they  were  addressed  as  ' '  Most  Reverend  and  Ven- 
erable." Even  as  late  as  the  seventh  century  this  office  was  common 
in  the  Christian  church,  the  Synod  of  Constantinople,  in  Tivoli,  691-2, 
promulgating  a  canon  fixing  the  age  at  which  both  men  and  women  could 
receive  ordination  for  the  deaconate.  At  this  date  women  still  adminis- 
tered baptism,  as  we  find  from  a  work  of  John  Moschus,  entitled  "  The 
Spiritual  Meadow,"  which,  appearing  at  the  end  of  this  century,  referred 
to  the  office  of  deaconess  in  conjunction  with  the  baptism  of  women. 

As  the  centuries  passed  on  and  the  idea  of  a  purely  masculine  God 
gained  strength,  we  find  woman  continuously  losing  her  representative 
place  in  the  church.  From  the  fourth  century  canons  were  promulgated 
by  various  councils  forbidding,  first,  her  ministry  and  service  at  the  altar; 
next,  the  deaconate  and  the  right  of  performing  baptism;  yet,  even  then, 
her  services  were  permitted  at  the  bedside  of  a  dying  person  in  case  no 
masculine  priest  was  present.  But  very  early  a  division  had  occurred 
between  men  and  women  in  the  church  upon  the  subject  of  baptism, 
women  claiming  the  right  to  baptize  their  own  sex.  At  this  ordinance 
the  candidate  was  divested  of  clothing,  anointed  with  oil,  and  other 
ceremonies  practiced  for  driving  out  demons,  with  which  all  the  unregen- 
erate  were  supposed  to  be  infested. 

Man  having  separated  himself  from  a  belief  in  the  femininity  of  God, 
continually  degraded  women  in  the  church,  as  is  shown  by  the  action  of 
these  various  councils.     That  of  Laodicea  (A.  D.  365),  by  its  eleventh 


Religious  Symposium.  405 

canon,  forbade  the  further  ordination  of  women  to  the  ministry,  and  pro- 
hibited them  from  even  entering  the  altar.  In  the  action  of  these  coun- 
cils, proof  is  shown  that  woman  did  not  willingly  relinquish  her  rights  in 
the  church.  The  Council  of  Orleans  (A.  D.  511),  one  hundred  and  forty- 
six  years  later,  promulgated  a  canon  excluding  women  from  the  deaconate, 
but  the  history  of  the  church  proves  them  to  have  continued  in  this  office, 
especially  in  the  Eastern  church,  three  hundred  years  longer. 

But  the  earliest  European  churches  made  great  distinction  between  the 
purity  of  man  and  woman,  even  while  women  still  possessed  functional 
rights  in  those  bodies.  By  a  decree  of  the  Council  of  Auxerre  (A.  D. 
578)  women,  on  account  of  their  impurity,  were  forbidden  to  receive  the 
Eucharist  into  their  naked  hands.  They  were  also  forbidden  to  sing  in 
church  on  account  of  their  inherent  wickedness. 

In  the  sixth  century  (Macon,  A.  D.  585)  a  council  was  held  whose  chief 
subject  of  discussion  was  the  possession  of  a  soul  by  woman.  While  upon 
one  side  was  the  determination  of  women  to  maintain  their  position  in  the 
church,  upon  the  other  side  was  the  whole  masculine  power  of  the  church 
sustained  purely  by  its  continuous  teaching  of  the  superiority  of  the  mas- 
culine, the  inferiority  and  subjection  of  women.  The  struggle  was  long. 
Despite  the  increasing  loss  of  spiritual  knowledge  and  the  entrance  of 
Europe  upon  that  prolonged  era  of  mental  and  moral  darkness,  when  from 
the  seventh  to  the  eleventh  century  individual  thought  was  so  far  crushed 
that  not  even  a  heresy  arose;  despite  the  action  of  councils  and  the  con- 
certed effort  of  the  church  for  depriving  her  of  spiritual  power — we  still 
possess  historical  proof  of  woman's  serving  at  the  altar  and  administering 
the  sacrament  until  the  ninth  century,  when  the  Council  of  Paris  (A.  D. 
824)  again  took  the  subject  into  restrictive  consideration. 

From  that  moment  the  darkness  of  Christendom  became  profound. 
Neither  science,  art,  nor  literature  flourished;  history  itself  died;  and  we 
know  absolutely  less  of  Christian  Europe  from  800  to  1100,  A.  D., 
than  we  do  of  ancient  Egypt  3,000  years  ago.  When  the  feminine 
was  wholly  proscribed,  the  night  of  moral  and  spiritual  degradation 
reached  its  greatest  depth,  and  that  condition  ensued  which  has  alike  been 
the  wonder  and  despair  of  the  modern  historian,  but  whose  cause  is 
easily  discernible  to  him  who  reads  aright.  The  church,  while  in  word 
proclaiming  the  unity  of  God,  had  in  reality  passed  over  to  idolatry  in 
a  worship  of  the  masculine.  In  place  of  truth,  falsehood  prevailed;  in 
place  of  unity,  division.  Has  not  the  time,  therefore,  fully  come  for 
women  to  take  council  together  ?  Has  not  the  time  come  for  an  inves- 
tigation of  the  principles  of  religion  ?  Has  not  the  moment  arrived  for 
woman  to  see  the  truths  of  nature  for  herself?  Has  not  the  time  come 
for  her  to  interpret  the  Bible  herself?  Shall  she  longer  consent  to* 
remain  a  subject  and  isolated  portion  of  humanity  ?     For    many  cen- 


406  International  Council  of  Women. 

turies  woman  lived  under  the  ban  of  silence.  In  the  inmost  recesses  of 
her  own  heart  she  knew  herself  to  be  a  component  part  of  humanity — 
the  chiefest  part,  inasmuch  as  through  her  life  is  ever  preserved.  But  for 
long  ages,  to  speak  was  death;  even  thought  was  controlled,  and  the 
bondage  of  her  will  seemed  absolute.  The  world  had  lost  its  equilibrium, 
and  its  descent  become  easy.  But  balances  can  not  forever  descend  ; 
"  There  are  two  poles  to  the  extremes  of  man's  nature." 

The  night  of  ignorance,  credulity,  and  despair  is  nearly  at  an  end;  the 
dawn  is  at  hand;  the  feminine  will  soon  be  fully  restored  to  its  rightful 
place  in  creation  and  in  religion  as  well  as  in  law,  in  the  divinity  as  well 
as  in  humanity,  we  shall  find  recognition  of  the  sexual  duality  of  all  life,  of 
the  motherhood  as  well  as  the  fatherhood  of  God. 

The  world  is  full  of  vague  unrest;  the  people,  the  church,  the  state  all 
have  premonition  of  some  great  crisis  at  hand;  but  neither  church,  state, 
nor  people  see  this  crisis  to  be  an  entire  revolution  in  religious  thought 
regarding  the  feminine.  The  hour  of  this  spiritual  change  is  at  hand. 
One  of  the  most  notable  signs  of  this  crisis  is  the  recent  formation  by 
women  of  a  society  for  the  moral  reformation  of  man — the  White  Cross. 
This  is  the  more  notable  as  the  past  action  of  the  church  has  created  two 
codes  of  morals  ;  the  strict  for  woman,  the  lax  for  man.  In  the  White 
Cross  for  men,  and  its  kindred  Silver  Cross  for  boys  and  youth  under 
sixteen,  the  same  moral  responsibility,  the  same  purity  of  conduct  is 
demanded  of  men  that  is  required  of  women. 

A  second  and  more  recent  sign  of  the  world's  spirit  to-day  lies  in  the 
call  for  an  International  Scientific  Congress  of  Catholics,  soon  to  convene 
in  Paris,  whose  wide  list  of  subjects  of  such  nature  as  a  century  or  two 
since  would  have  condemned  a  man  to  the  stake  for  heresy,  has  received 
the  sanction  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  In  this  programme,  drawn  up  by  the 
leading  French  scholars,  are  such  questions  as  "the  authenticity  of  the 
Pentateuch  and  the  prophecies,"  "the  bases  of  morality  and  right" — to 
which  end  all  of  Herbert  Spencer's  studies  have  tended — "  the  origin  of 
life,"  and  "a  textual  criticism  of  the  New  Testament." 

When  the  conservative  Mother  Church  endorses  a  council  of  her  chil- 
dren, among  whose  objects  are  criticisms  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
inquires  into  the  authenticity  of  the  Pentateuch  and  prophecies  of  the  Old 
Testament,  the  world  is  in  the  midst  of  a  tremendous  religious  revolution. 
And  when  in  addition  to  this  Catholic  action  we  find  Protestant  theolo- 
gians of  prominence,  with  Bishop  Carlisle  at  their  head,  engaged  in  a 
discussion  as  to  the  original  form  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  or  ' '  Ten 
Words,"  and  eliminating  from  the  tenth  as  an  interpolation  all  that  por- 
tion in  regard  to  a  man's  wife,  his  ox,  his  cattle,  and  all  things  that  are 
his,  leaving  it  simply  "Thou  shalt  not  covet,"  surely  the  spiritual  en- 
franchisement of  the  world  is  at  hand. 


Religious  Symposium.  407 

In  view  of  all  the  past  and  present  continuous  revisions  of  the  Bible  and 
its  many  thousand  acknowledged  mistakes  and  interpolations,  whereby  not 
only  the  Ten  Commandments  are  found  wrong,  and  also  the  most  cher- 
ished portions  of  the  New  Testament,  as  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  are  proven  to  have  been  added  to,  it  is  folly  to  expect 
from  women  an  undoubted  belief  in  man's  theological  statements  and 
biblical  interpretations. 

Man  has  lost  his  power  over  woman.  Mr.  Moody,  the  evangelist,  de- 
clared he  found  men  a  hundred-fold  more  receptive  of  his  teachings  than 
women.  For  fifteen  years  he  had  preached  a  sermon  in  the  afternoon  to 
women,  and  the  same  sermon  as  far  as  possible  to  men  in  the  evening,  and 
in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  with  inconceivably  greater  results. 

The  right  of  private  judgment  possessed  by  women  in  the  early  Chris- 
tian church,  as  we  have  noted,  although  afterwards  denied  both  to  women 
and  to  common  men,  was  in  reality  the  great  lesson  of  the  Reformation, 
although  not  yet  fully  conceded  to  the  women  of  to-day.  The  world 
is  alive  with  religious  questions.  The  purity  of  the  church  is  ques- 
tioned. A  tree  is  declared  known  by  its  fruits,  says  the  London  Table, 
and  asks  what  is  the  actual  and  practical  good  of  the  professed  Christianity 
of  England  at  this  present  time,  with  the  land  absolutely  seething  with 
want,  misery,  ignorance,  and  vice  in  their  most  degrading  and  debasing 
forms.  Even  in  this  country  conservative  men  are  demanding  a  new  class 
of  clergy  more  in  accord  with  science  and  the  spirit  of  the  hour.  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  in  an  address  before  the  Social  Union  of  Amherst  College 
a  few  years  since,  bewailed  the  unprogressiveness  of  theology,  declaring 
the  need  of  a  fresh  class  of  clergy  for  the  benefit  of  man's  education. 

If  such  a  fresh  class  of  clergy  is  needed  by  men,  how  much  more  by  women, 
against  whose  moral  and  material  rights  the  interpretations  of  the  Bible 
and  the  whole  force  of  the  church  have  been  directed  for  nearly  2,000  years. 
The  religious  teachers  of  the  present  day  need  to  be  brave  and  liberal 
persons,  possessing  knowledge  of  science,  history,  and  the  laws  of  evolu- 
tion. They  need  to  be  persons — they  need  to  be  women — who  shall  dare 
break  away  from  all  the  false  traditions  of  the  middle  ages,  fearless  in 
preaching  the  truth  as  to  the  absolute  and  •permanent  equality  of  the 
feminine  with  the  masculine,  not  alone  in  all  material,  but  in  all  spiritual 
things. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  the 
Rev.  Antoinette  L.  Brown,  who,  as  I  have  said  to  you  before,  was  the 
first  woman  ever  regularly  ordained  as  a  minister  in  this  country. 

WHAT    RELIGIOUS    TRUTHS    CAN    BE    ESTABLISHED    BY 
SCIENCE   AND    PHILOSOPHY? 

Mrs.  Brown  Blackwell.  In  presenting  a  theme  like  this  upon  an 
occasion  like  the  present,  a  few  explanatory  words  are  needed  to  indicate 
the  fitness  of  the  subject  for  the  occasion. 


408  International  Council  of  Women. 

Nearer  fifty  than  forty  years  ago  a  young  country  girl  began  to  realize 
that  many  active  workers  in  various  reforms,  and  men  occupied  in  differ- 
ent lines  of  investigation,  were  tending  away  from  the  religious  orthodoxy 
of  the  day,  and  that  the  positions  taken  on  both  sides  were  often  incon- 
sequent. At  that  time  the  girl  was  sincerely  though  liberally  orthodox; 
but  she  had  an  intuitive  disbelief  in  the  monstrous  doctrine  that  to  the 
male  sex  only  is  delegated  the  duty  of  investigating  truth,  and  judging 
between  the  true  and  the  false,  with  the  corresponding  duty  of  instructing 
others.  She  recognized  an  impulse  towards  exactly  that  vocation  for 
herself;  and  she  began  diligently  to  qualify  herself,  as  well  as  she  could 
by  study  and  research,  to  stand  on  an  intellectual  level  with  the  best  edu- 
cated minds. 

She  had  one  solid  basis  for  a  creed.  With  not  a  shadow  of  a  doubt 
that  religious  truth  had  been  specially  revealed,  she  recognized  the  actual 
Universe  to  be  an  exposition  of  truth  which  no  one,  whatever  his  opin- 
ions otherwise,  could  have  any  right  to  discredit.  She  distinctly  made  it 
the  final  test  of  opinions.  After  a  full  course  of  theological  study  she 
began  to  investigate  the  established  principles  and  facts  in  many  depart- 
ments of  science,  supplemented,  where  direct  verification  fails,  by  logic 
and  philosophy.  From  then  till  now  she  has  been  trying  to  answer  the 
question,  "  What  religious  truths  can  be  demonstrated  without  help  from 
a  special  revelation  ?  "   This  paper  is  a  very  brief  statement  of  conclusions. 

Can  Nature  reveal  an  Intelligence  who  deserves  to  be  named  Good  or 
God  ?  Is  He  the  Creator  ? — that  is,  Did  he  condition  and  establish  related 
Nature  with  her  modes  and  processes  ? 

We  have  reason  and  feeling.  Animals,  even  plants,  are  clearly  of  our 
kin.  The  frost-work  on  our  windows  and  all  physical  products  seem 
kindred  also.  They  follow  methods  so  like  intelligence  no  one  can  wonder 
that  primitive  men  thought  there  must  be  some  directive  wisdom  behind. 
Science  shows  us  that  everything  follows  its  own  innate  laws  and  tenden- 
cies; that  Nature  of  herself  can  go  on  progressively  and  work  out  her 
own  destiny.  But  science  has  not  yet  decided  whether  these  innate  laws 
and  tendencies  have  arisen  spontaneously,  or  whether  they  began,  with 
time  itself,  as  dependent  parts  of  one  rational  plan,  devised  and  inaugurated 
by  Original  Intelligence. 

Motion  is  one  of  nature's  measured  quantities,  and  mass — the  exten- 
sions or  tensions  of  matter — the  other.  These  tensions  are  often  called 
matter,  and  the  motion,  force.  We  distinguish  them  as  "bound"  mo- 
tions and  "  free  "  motions;  both  working  energies,  with  action  and  reac- 
tion between  them,  equal  and  opposed.  We  hold  that  all  changes  of 
every  kind  are,  in  their  last  analysis,  atomic  changes;  that  they  are  inter- 
nal rhythms,  motion  on  their  physical  side,  and  emotion,  conscious  or 
sub-conscious,  on  their  mental  side. 


Religious  Symposium.  409 

Whenever  by  an  adapted  combination  of  rhythms  any  atom  can  take 
the  initiative  in  promoting,  through  its  sentient  phases,  motions  complex, 
subtle,  rapid  and  delicate  enough  to  lift  it  into  the  domain  of  higher  feel- 
ing, it  may  become  self-conscious!  As  material,  it  is  a  rhythmic  atom, 
co-operating  with  countless  hosts  of  other  atoms  in  one  larger  combined 
system.     But  it  has  now  become  conscious  of  its  own  heritage. 

If  the  Eternal  Self-existence  is  only  unconscious  power,  and  law  and 
process  only  mechanical  results,  then  we  can  expect  to  find  in  nature  no 
sufficient  evidence  of  a  rational  adjustment  of  change  to  change  in  the 
grand  harmony  of  dependent  organic  motions  and  emotions.  We  can 
expect  to  find  no  convincing  proof  that  emotion  or  consciousness — per- 
ception, feeling,  thought,  purpose,  in  all  their  vivid,  varied  experiences — 
is  but  the  other  side,  the  higher  phase  of  one  created  rhythmic  progress  ! 
We  can  not  hope  to  prove  that  the  living  changes  in  a  distinct  personal 
consciousness — conditioned  inseparably  with  changes  in  space — are  so 
attuned  to  the  more  facile  types  of  vibration  that  when  it  throbs  respon- 
sive to  these  from  its  chief  seat  among  the  grand  organic  harmonies,  it 
may  become  as  one  of  the  gods  in  its  own  rational  enjoyment. 

But  if  Intelligent  Power  has  related  all  rhythmic  changes  in  such  ways 
that  certain  ultimate  persistent  rhythmic  systems,  impelled,  guided,  and 
aided  by  their  relations,  can  rise  into  distinct,  actual  self- consciousness, 
we  ought  to  be  able  to  discover  and  verify  that  fact.  If  nature,  as  a 
whole,  has  been  so  constituted  that,  soon  or  late,  it  will  surely  be  evolved 
into  a  universe,  not  like  this  of  to-day,  admirable  and  grand  as  this 
already  is,  but  into  a  universe  such  as  this  will  be  hereafter,  a  universe 
such  as  we  ourselves  can  already  forecast  in  ideal,  then  we  ought  to  real- 
ize that  great  sustaining  truth. 

The  vital  intelligence  and  benevolence  of  the  vast  related  scheme  should 
be  found  ingrained  in  the  deepest  constitution  of  conditioned  being  and 
in  every  detail  of  its  related  activities.  By  diligent  searching  we  ought 
to  be  able  to  find  satisfactory  evidence  of  a  consistently  rational  plan  and 
of  a  wholly  beneficent  method  of  achieving  it.  We  ought  to  be  able,  soon 
or  late,  to  demonstrate  these  reassuring  truths  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
minds  competent  to  weigh  the  evidence  upon  both  sides. 

But  so  long  as  we  continue  to  interpret  Nature's  processes  in  coarse 
aggregates,  then — very  much  as  by  the  aid  of  our  senses  alone  we  see  only 
those  things  which  are  coarse-grained  enough  to  become  sensibly  visible, 
and  hear  only  those  sounds  which  vibrate  slowly  enough  to  quicken  our 
physical  organs  of  hearing — we  shall  be  able  to  see  not  very  far  beyond 
the  superficial  appearances. 

No  great  advance  in  knowledge  was  ever  gained  except  by  looking 
with  other  eyes  than  those  of  sense.     No  one  has  literally  seen  the  law 
of  gravitation  or  the  revolution  of  the  earth  upon  its  axis  and  about  the 
27 


410  International  Council  of  Women. 

sun.  Science  can  verify  the  truths  which  at  first  were  insight,  inference 
or  hypothesis;  but  weights  and  measures  can  not  fathom  the  profound 
meaning  of  rational  principles.  One  may  fail  by  attempting  too  much. 
But  Browning  says,  "What  I  aspired  to  be,  comforts  me." 

Existence  is  essentially  force  or  power.  It  is  power  to  exist  and  to  act. 
When  related  being  is  called  matter,  as  it  is  by  materialists,  then  matter 
is  interpreted  as  having  the  efficient  quality  of  force.  When  called  force, 
by  idealists,  then  matter  is  placed  among  its  modes.  Thus  philosophy 
affirms  either  that  the  self-existent  is  power,  or  that  it  has  power — a  dis- 
tinction more  verbal  than  actual. 

The  merest  baby  shows  that  he  instinctively  recognizes  power  to  be  the 
common  element  in  every  related  change.  To  cry  and  laugh  is  energy 
expressed  in  crying  and  laughing.  Every  feeling,  every  thought  and  act, 
every  object,  every  motion,  is  some  mode  in  which,  power  is  manifested. 
We  instinctively  discriminate  the  power  in  each  change  from  the  method 
through  which  the  changes  are  produced. 

Then,  if  Uncrea.^d  Being  is  essential  Power,  created  things  may  be  the 
methods  in  which  this  abiding  Power  has  chosen  to  relate,  and  through 
these  relations  to  limit  and  direct  some  of  its  own  activity.  The  absolute 
Total  can  add  nothing  to  itself;  it  is  the  all;  but  if  it  be  Intelligent  Power, 
it  could  voluntarily  forego  the  unlimited  use  of  any  part  of  its  own  activity. 
Creation  might  be,  not  something  added  to  the  absolute,  but  something 
virtually  subtracted  from  its  exercise  ;  disused  in  an  unlimited  sense,  and 
so  related  that  it  can  be  utilized  only  under  established  conditions.  If 
essential  power  were  so  appropriated,  it  would,  to  that  extent,  be  not  ac- 
tually, but  practically,  given  away;  given  to  the  conditioned  beings  who 
could  use  it  only  under  the  imposed  regulations;  its  uses  would  be  their 
uses. 

We  continually  limit  our  own  activities ;  but  if  we  are  wise,  we  do  it  only 
for  wise  reasons.  If  we  are  benevolent,  we  voluntarily  give  of  our  energies 
to  benefit  others.  If  there  be  a  Supreme  Intelligence,  we  can  hardly  assume 
that,  in  establishing  a  persistent  conditioned  universe  by  limiting  the  exer- 
cise of  His  supreme  power,  He  has  been  less  wise  or  less  benevolent  than 
we  ourselves  often  are.  If  creation  is  the  result  of  a  rational  choice,  of  a 
realized  intelligent  plan,  we  should  be  compelled  to  believe  in  the  benev- 
olence of  the  established  scheme,  even  before  it  was  positively  demon- 
strated. 

But  the  whole  remains  simply  a  question  of  fact:  Can  the  actual  uni- 
verse prove  or  disprove  the  hypothesis  that  creation  is  a  free  gift  to  cer- 
tain conditioned  beings,  to  little  living  systems  of  rhythmic  activities, 
conditioned  in  joint  dependence  and  several-sided  in  manifestations  ? 

By  using  the  energies  thus  conferred  upon  them,  such  conditioned 
beings,  the  rhythmic  atoms  of  our  theory,  would  be  allied  both  to  the 


Religious  Sympos ium .  41 1 

matter  side  and  to  the  mind  side  of  the  existing  universe.  Their  endless 
changes  would  be  both  simultaneous  and  successive  alike  as  motions  and 
as  emotions.  This  only  means  that  the  internal  atomic  relations  necessi- 
tate equal  action  and  reaction  at  once  in  space,  in  time,  and  in  living  sen- 
tience. With  each  change  of  motion  would  arise  a  related  feeling  more 
or  less  vivid.  Would  not  the  rise  of  consciousness  in  such  a  being  be 
more  kindred  with  its  origin  than  the  unsentient  or  motion  side  of  its 
changes?  The  special  methods  in  which  it  can  act  must  begin  with  its 
relative  constitution.  It  must  start  with  a  first-related  motion  and  a  first- 
related  emotion.  It  must  gain  distinct  self-consciousness,  if  at  all,  as  it 
gains  personal  knowledge  and  all  other  experiences,  progressively  and 
increasingly.  The  rhythmic  atom  is  a  method ,  an  endless  process.  In 
consciousness,  it  must  be  an  endless  progress,  if  it  continue  to  exist  at 
all  as  a  distinct  system  of  related  changes. 

No  one  can  affirm  in  advance  that  relative  existence  may  not  be  consti- 
tuted in  accordance  with  a  benign  scheme  similar  to  the  one  we  have  out- 
lined. If  it  be,  immortality,  personal  and  conscious,  is  as  firmly  assured 
to  each  of  us  as  is  the  indestructibility  of  universal  nature.  Our  person- 
ality is  atomic,  not  organic.  Of  course  one  can  only  suggest  the  line 
of  evidence  in  confirmation  of  the  theory,  in  a  brief  paper  like  this.  Its 
first,  most  verifiable,  and  most  crucial  tests  must  come  from  the  facts,  prin- 
ciples, and  laws  of  the  physical  world.  If  it  can  pass  that  ordeal,  psychical 
explanations  and  the  relations  of  mind  to  matter  will  add  confirmation 
too  strong  to  admit  of  further  question.  Then  can  we  intelligently  state 
the  nature  of  the  rhythmic  atom  on  its  matter  side?  If  we  can,  will  it 
explain  compound  physical  processes  satisfactorily? 

Science  is  steadily  reaching  the  conclusion  that  the  atom  of  matter  is 
a  persistent  unit,  with  tensions  and  motions ;  but  it  has  no  distinct  theory 
of  the  exact  relations  between  mass  and  motion .  It  holds  that  emotions 
arise  with  organic,  possibly  in  some  elementary  degree  with  inorganic, 
physical  changes ;  yet,  illogically,  the  so-called  materialists  argue  that 
sentience  arises  not  only  with,  but  from,  compound  substances  as  their 
resultant  properties.  But  every  system,  large  or  small,  must  change 
exclusively  within  itself,  whether  its  changes  be  motions,  emotions,  or 
both,  though  its  changes  must  be  modified  by  its  co-operations.  If  there 
be  persistent  least  units  of  changes  at' ail,  then  all  changes  must  be  solely, 
inherently,  atomic. 

Atomic  lines  of  tension,  extending  indefinitely  outward,  or  grouped 
around  the  atomic  center,  seeming  to  have  position  only,  equally  stand 
for  mass,  and  are  composed  of  bound  or  equilibriated  motions.  Free 
motions,  run  along  these  tensions,  or  go  elsewhere;  but  always  leaving 
reversed  motion  or  increased  tensions  as  an  equivalent.  No  atom  can 
part  with  any  portion  of  its  proper  energy,  acting  either  as  tensions  or  as 
free  motions.     Nature,  as  a  total,  can  neither  increase  her  tensions  nor 


412  International  Council  of  Women. 

her  free  motions,  but  in  any  part  there  may  be  more  bound  and  less  free 
motions,  or  the  reverse.  The  combination  of  atoms  generally  results  in 
increase  of  tensions  and  liberation  of  motion,  with  commensurate  modifica- 
tions of  the  atomic  rhythms.  This  means  related  modification  of  all  pro- 
cesses, motional  or  emotional ;  but  not  the  transfer  of  atomic  changes 
from  the  atom  elsewhere. 

Will  you  for  a  few  minutes  try  to  imagine  a  pulsating  star  of  energies, 
with  every  ray  alternately  expanding  and  contracting  from  a  common 
center.  Think  of  each  ray  as  stretching  outward  and  back  again  through 
a  given  space  in  a  given  time.  Imagine  that  while  half  of  the  rays  are 
expanding  the  other  half  are  contracting.  Each  pair  of  these  opposed 
vibrating  rays  becomes  a  pole  or  axis  of  the  atom  ;  but  as  it  has  many 
axes  balancing  it  in  all  directions,  though  it  is  vibrating  in  every  part,  it 
is  centrally  at  rest,  and  can  only  be  moved  from  its  position  by  some  out- 
side power.  Now,  what  can  this  rhythmic  complex  unity  of  motions  be 
supposed  to  make  plainer  and  more  credible  in  physical  processes?  Re- 
member that  it  is  more  indivisible  than  the  inside  from  the  outside  of  a 
sea  shell,  or  the  strings  from  the  ^olian  harp.  It  is  an  equilibrium  of 
motions,  so  delicately  balanced  that  to  disturb  the  adjusted  action  and 
reaction  at  any  point  would  throw  the  whole  into  a  confusion,  which 
would  become  annihilation  to  the  changing  dependent  system. 

Let  us  suppose  a  myriad  of  such  simple  yet  complex  atoms  to  be  put 
into  a  chemist's  retort.  Their  extending  poles  meet,  clash,  or  strike,  end 
to  end.  They  must  rebound  ;  that  is,  repel  each  other.  The  amount  of 
repulsion  must  depend  upon  the  force  of  each  collision,  that  upon  the  ex- 
tent of  each  polar  expansion  before  the  contact,  that  upon  the  greater  or 
less  crowding  of  like  particles.  Could  not  our  expanding  and  contracting 
poles,  with  their  exact  normal  balance  of  energies,  thus  mutually  inter- 
fering for  want  of  room,  explain  the  facts  of  gaseous  distribution,  the  laws 
of  pressure,  and  all  the  various  phenomena  of  gases,  without  the  need  of 
gratuitously  endowing  small  masses  with  any  power  of  self-translation,  of 
attraction,  or  of  repulsion,  such  as  larger  masses  do  not  possess?  The 
tensions  of  any  one  gas  being  equilibriated,  "saturated,"  other  gases 
could  enter  as  into  a  vacuum,  if  their  poles  vibrate  upon  other  lines. 

Our  rhythmic  atoms  have  varieties  of  type,  and  even,  possible  unlike 
modifications  in  response  to  outside  energies,  in  the  same  type.  If  the 
extending  poles  of  different  gases  within  a  limited  space  be  thought  of  as 
stretching  past  each  other  from  opposite  directions  along  closely  parallel 
lines,  any  foreign  motion  evidently  might  shake  them  together.  Both 
lines  of  tension  are  groups  of  bound  motions,  which  would  easily  become 
entwined.  Each  pole,  on  its  return  vibration  towards  its  own  atomic 
center,  must  pull  against  its  neighbor;  a  tense  compound  line  will  result, 
and  draw  the  two  combining  atoms  into  one  larger  equilibrium — the 
molecule. 


Religious  Symposium.  413 

This  necessitates  readjusted  rhythms,  which  become  new  properties  to 
our  answering  sensations.  This  process  is  called  chemical  combination. 
Chemical  action  varies  indefinitely  in  details  ;  but  in  chemical  union 
there  is  increase  of  tensions,  with  liberation  and  distribution  of  heat  mo- 
tion, while  in  chemical  disunion  heat  is  absorbed  and  the  tensions  are 
decreased — each  pole  being  freed  from  the  pull  of  its  neighbor.  Adjusted 
polar  vibrations  would  explain  the  facts  of  varying  affinities  and  atom- 
icities, without  calling  in  the  aid  of  occult  predilections  of  one  sub- 
stance for  another.  There  is  a  definite  combination  of  two  or  more 
poles,  each  pole  moving  from  its  own  atomic  center  both  before  and  after 
it  has  combined  with  its  neighbor.  Each  modifies  the  motions  of  the 
other;  so  that  there  is  more  bound  and  less  free  motion  between  them 
after  the  union  ;  but  each  atom  still  energizes  for  itself,  and  it  has  neither 
more  nor  less  energy  than  before. 

Chemical  action  has  been  regarded  as  a  special  kind  of  influence,  but 
our  theory  reduces  it  to  plain  mechanical  combination.  The  motions  are 
atomic,  and  generally  vibrations  rather  than  translations,  but  they  obey 
mechanical  laws.  They  are  only  new  associations  among  inconceivably 
delicate  harmonies  of  motion.  If  the  uniting  tensions  can  so  far  push  and 
pull  together  in  the  same  directions  that  no  apparent  change  of  physical 
properties  results — that  is,  if  the  sum  of  the  combined  tensions  and  mo- 
tions remains  unchanged,  as  when  like  particles  combine  to  form  a  solid, 
we  call  that  class  of  unions  cohesions  or  adhesions.  The  difference  is 
not  in  the  kind  of  energies  in  action  ;  it  all  depends  on  whether  they  pull 
together  or  pull  against  each  other. 

Now,  let  us  recall  that,  while  one-half  of  the  atomic  poles  extend,  the 
others  contract.  Various  associated  tensions  may  thus  arise  from  the 
union  of  poles  within  the  same  atom.  Gases  have  indefinitely-extending 
poles;  but  pressure  or  the  removal  of  heat,  by  crowding  together  outgoing 
and  incoming  poles  till  they  combine  with  opposed  tensions,  must  produce 
immense  contraction.  This  accounts  for  the  change  from  gases  to  fluids. 
Friction  and  similar  foreign  motion,  by  combining  poles  of  the  same  or 
of  different  molecules  in  such  ways  as  to  force  co-operation  in  one  direc- 
tion, with  more  or  less  of  stress  and  constraint,  must  compel  a  commen- 
surate reaction  somewhere.  This  explains  static  electricity,  electric  dis- 
charge, disruptive  action,  and  stress  in  the  dialectric.  The  magnet  has  a 
permanent  separation  of  the  outgoing  from  the  incoming  poles,  with  so 
much  bending  of  their  lines  of  vibration  that  they  co-operate  in  a  con- 
tinuous circuit.  Metals  become  good  conductors  by  a  permanent  partial 
polarization.  Electrical  currents  and  their  interfering  fields  of  force  have 
similar  explanations. 

Light,  heat,  sound,  and  all  motions  radiated  or  conducted  along  uncom- 
bined  atomic  poles  move  in  straight  lines.     They  also  can  be  variously 


414  International  Council  of  Women. 

polarized,  but  only  by  sending  them  against  or  through  substances 
which  are  themselves  under  a  constraint  from  tensions  in  definite  directions. 
All  radiated  motions,  by  quickening  the  rates,  extend  the  amplitudes  of 
polar  vibrations  without  changing  the  time  of  beats.  They  all  tend  to 
decrease  tensions  and  increase  polar  elongations.  Compensating  lines  of 
energy  must  steadily  tend  to  increase  tensions  and  decrease  polar  elonga- 
tions. Equal  action  and  reaction  compel  this;  but  the  principle  explains 
gravitation  with  its  strength  of  energy  wherever  tensions  are  aggregated 
and  its  inverse  energy  as  the  distance  increases. 

Rotary  motion  has  no  place  in  simple  atomic  rhythms,  yet  it  is  easily 
taken  on  either  by  atoms  or  compounds.  The  universe  is  a  vast  equi- 
libration of  ceaseless  changes,  every  one  of  which  necessitates  some  unlike 
compensating  change.  The  ether  of  space  transmits  all  lines  of  energy. 
It  is  a  vast  field,  where  uncombined  vibrating  poles  produce  tensions  not 
unlike  those  of  a  saturated  gas  in  a  confined  space;  but  a  special  ether  is 
not  needed  to  explain  the  terrestrial  operations  of  light,  heat,  or  electricity; 
and  by  abolishing  it  here  as  an  hypothesis,  we  abolished  the  almost 
insuperable  difficulties  of  explaining  its  co-operations  with  ordinary 
matter. 

Every  change  arises  under  the  irreversible  law  of  necessity,  but  with 
wide  opportunities  of  varied  action  within  definite  limits.  No  fact  is  more 
obvious  to  science,  or  is  found  to  reach  more  widely  into  all  processes, 
than  that  of  an  appreciable  variability  under  like  conditions. 

Fluent  energies  are  inherently  opposed  to  rigidity  in  action  or  reaction. 
They  have  special  adaptations  for  compensating  variations.  Thus  only 
could  they  accept  emergencies  coming  in  any  mode  from  any  direction, 
by  radiations  as  various  as  the  incident  forces.  This  allows  sufficient  lati- 
tude to  intelligent  volition  whenever  a  conscious  atom  recognizes  its  own 
possibilities.  Besides  providing  for  a  steady  general  evolution,  it  confers 
dignity  and  value  upon  individual  life  and  makes  character  in  large  part  a 
personal  acquirement.  It  sets  a  moral  value  upon  conduct  as  good  or 
bad,  and  it  supplies  motives,  enforcing  them  by  inherent  penalties  and 
rewards. 

Not  till  the  conscious  mind  can  measurably  control  an  organism  adapted 
to  its  needs  does  it  become  distinctly  self-conscious.  A  type  of  feeble 
but  ever-recurring  sentience,  without  memory,  seems  to  exist  and  to  have 
its  own  values.  Nascent  feeling  certainly  reaches  far  down  in  the  scale 
of  development.  We  ourselves  have  a  sub-consciousness  of  many  kinds 
and  degrees,  sleeping  and  waking.  In  sleep,  the  organism  impels  the 
mind,  often  driving  it  into  random  activities.  It  does  this  in  waking 
hours  if  we  are  off  guard.  But  it  is  the  privilege  of  the  conscious  side  of 
every  individuality  physically  well  provided  and  aided,  to  take  the  helm 
and  steer,  at  least  in  mild  seas  and  when  there  are  no  tempests  of  passion 


Religious  Symposium.  415 

and  temptation.     Even  with  a  feeble  hold  upon  the  co-working  forces, 
one  can  acquire  a  God-like  self-control. 

The  mind  side  of  the  rhythmic  atom  seems  to  me  less  difficult  to  com- 
prehend than  the  matter  side.  A  motion  is  a  change  from  there  to  here 
in  space,  but  it  is  also  change  from  then  to  now  in  time;  then  why  not  the 
related  side  of  change  from  that  feeling  to  this  feeling  ?  The  feeling 
arises  in  sentience  and  in  time.  Time,  the  common  function,  relates  the 
motions  to  their  associated  emotions.  The  two  are  distinct  in  kind,  but 
never  separate  in  time;  and  not  two  changes,  but  the  two  jointly-dependent 
aspects  of  one  change.  We  know  the  space  and  time  sides  of  every 
motion  to  be  distinct,  but  never  separate.  We  know  the  conscious  and 
time  sides  of  every  feeling  to  be  distinct,  but  never  separate.  But  it  is 
equally  certain  that,  as  motion  and  emotion — two  sides  of  the  same  change 
in  a  common  time — they  are  distinct,  but  never  separate. 

What  has  so  long  blinded  us  to  this  obvious  dependence  ?  Surely 
nothing  except  tradition  and  inherited  primitive  belief.  Inter-related, 
arising  as  one  progression,  they  are  the  indivisible  sides  of  one  several- 
sided  conditioned  activity.  Together  they  are  an  endless,  serial  progress 
of  changes  in  every  atomic  history.  Co-operation  varies  the  modes  of 
the  atomic  process ;  it  changes  the  internal  adjustments ;  but  there  is  in 
each  atom  a  rhythmic  unity  of  changes  absolutely  personal  to  itself. 

A  long  line  of  physical  ancestry,  increasingly  organized,  prepares  a 
human  brain  for  its  proper  sovereign.  Human  consciousness  does  not 
come  single  and  alone  into  conscious  life.  Analogy  offers  convincing 
evidence  that  it  will  not  plunge  alone  and  orphaned  into  the  life  to  come. 
All  life  is  immortal  life ;  conditioned  life  is  progressive  personal  experi- 
ence. Like  Archbishop  Paley's  watch,  our  rhythmic  atom  of  dependent 
relations  compels  belief  that  Intelligence  devised  and  established  its  won- 
derful co-operations.  It  demonstrates  the  need  of  a  rational  Creator.  It 
makes  Him  surety  for  our  personal  immortality,  with  enough  freedom  of 
action  to  offer  a  solid  basis  for  the  growth  of  mental  and  moral  character. 

It  ensures  an  ever-enlarging,  conscious  experience.  It  guarantees  the 
possibility  of  an  ever-increasing  happiness  with  ever-enlarging  social 
sympathies.  It  confirms  the  lesson  of  fraternity,  which  makes  men 
brothers  and  helpers  of  each  other.  It  proves  even  the  humbler  four- 
footed  and  no-footed  folk  to  be  our  near  kindred.  But  it  makes  us  akin 
also  to  Omnipotent  Power,  which  is  in  all  conditioned  being.  Can  we 
ask  for  more  ? 

Miss  Anthony.  The  next  speaker  on  the  programme  is  Mrs.  Caroline 
H.  Dall ;  but  as  she  is  not  present  I  will  introduce  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Boynton 
Harbert,  of  Illinois. 

"  god   is  LOVE." 

Mrs.  Harbert.     Is  it  not  a  hopeful  fact,  that  the  foundation  principles  of 


416  International  Council  of  Women. 

religion  are  so  divinely  simple,  that  although  one  is  limited  to  ten  minutes, 
the  attempt  at  statement  is  made  ? 

We  are  told  that  notwithstanding  the  fears  and  strenuous  opposition  of 
his  men,  one  of  our  generals,  who  had  real  faith  in  God,  in  the  power  of 
truth,  the  omnipotence  of  love,  went  unarmed  into  the  presence  of  an  Indian 
chief,  who  had  always  decreed  death  for  any  "  pale  face"  who  should  dare 
approach  him.  Please  study  the  scene.  The  powerful,  so-called  bar- 
barous chief,  the  unarmed  apostle  of  "peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men." 
"You  have  a  Father  in  heaven,"  was  the  tender  assurance  of  the  "  pale  face." 
A  gruff  assent  from  the  chief.  "I  have  a  Father  in  heaven."  Again  the 
gruff  response.  "  Listen.  If  you  have  a  Father  in  heaven,  and  I  have  a 
Father  in  heaven,  and  there  is  but  one  Father,  one  '  Great  Spirit,'  then  vou 
and  I  are  brothers."  The  soul  of  the  Indian  was  reached  by  those  three 
sentences  of  love.  Tears  streamed  down  his  face  as,  clasping  the  extended 
hand  of  the  general,  he  recognized,  by  gleams  of  that  "  inner  light  which 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world,"  the  fatherhood  of  God, 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  the  love  to  God  and  humanity  that  "  make 
the  whole  world  kin." 

Love  is  the  creative  principle,  the  basis  of  everything  permanent  and 
real  in  character,  thought,  and  morals;  not  what  we  think  about  God, 
Christ,  and  humanity,  but  the  degree  of  our  love  and  faith,  is  the  vital  fact. 
But  how  do  we  know,  in  this  world  of  so  many  apparent  contradictions, 
that  we  do  "  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  "  in  a  Creator  who  is  infinite 
in  goodness,  omnipotent  in  love?  (i.)  By  the  interior  perception,  by  the 
spiritual  in  all  ages,  races,  stations,  and  conditions.  Can  you,  dear  friends, 
wander  alone  into  the  mysterious  presence  of  a  starry  night,  and  there  say 
truly  that  you  believe  the  miracle  enfolding  you,  the  result  of  chance?  (2.) 
We  believe  the  Creator  is  good,  because  of  the  universal  love  of  life,  his 
gift — the  dread  of  death,  of  annihilation,  and  the  desire  for  immortality. 
This  could  not  be  true  unless,  despite  the  shadow  of  error — which  is  but  our 
failure  to  appropriate  the  good — life  is  a  good  gift.  We  are  souls,  not  bodies. 
"The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  within."  Evil  is  but  our  failure  to  appropri- 
ate the  good.  In  the  emancipation  of  the  spirit  from  materialistic  fears,  lies 
the  freedom  which  the  world  has  struggled  to  obtain. 

As  in  the  Indian  chief,  as  it  was  with  the  thief  upon  the  cross,  so  in  every 
child  of  God,  created  in  the  image  of  the  good,  is  the  immortal  soul — the 
spark  of  life.  True,  because  it  is  soul ;  immortal,  because  it  is  true.  There 
is  nothing  disintegrating  in  truth,  hence  no  soul  can  ever  die.  The  mortal, 
error  and  falsehood  disintegrated,  is  lost  away  from  the  soul — in  fact,  being 
false,  a  negation,  never  had  any  real  existence.  There  is  no  death ;  what 
we  call  death  is  a  glorious  birth,  as  witness  even  the  statements  of  thousands 
made,  just  as  the  spirit  puts  aside  the  earthly  mask.  But  what  of  the  strug- 
gle,  you  ask.     The  moment  we  begin  to  see  clearly  that  life  is  but  a  rapid 


Religious  Symposium.  417 

journey  toward  an  eternity  of  joy,  that  friendship,  love,  and  spiritual 
development,  are  the  eternal  verities,  the  entire  aspect  of  the  struggle 
changes. 

A  scientist  received  from  a  friend  a  rare  specimen  of  the  emperor  moth. 
Impatiently  he  watched  and  waited  for  the  day  when  the  worm  should 
emerge  from  the  chrysalis.  At  last  the  struggle  commenced.  Slowly  the 
worm  began  to  emerge  through  a  small  aperture.  The  scientist,  impatient 
at  the  delay,  took  a  sharp  knife  and  cut  the  film  skin  and  the  worm  crawled 
out.  Then  he  discovered  his  mistake.  Only  by  passing  through  the  small 
aperture  could  the  substance  of  the  body  of  the  worm  be  forced  into  the 
wings  of  the  insect.  Thus  in  our  effort  to  appropriate  the  good  do  we 
develop  the  wings  of  love  by  which  we  can  soar  away  to  the  realms  of  the 
loving.  "Still  the  great  mystery  remains,"  some  one  may  be  thinking — 
the  mystery  of  our  creation.  Do  we  not  find  it  in  this  thought?  The 
maternal  and  paternal  instinct  are  of  divinest  origin.  The  father  and 
mother  are  spirits  lonely,  with  no  children  to  love  and  care  for.  Hence 
we  are  the  offspring  of  Omnipotent  Love,  and  do  we  not  begin  to  see  that 
an  Omnipotent  Spirit  of  Love,  knowing  life  to  be  a  divine  gift,  could  no 
more  desist  from  creating  than  refrain  from  loving?  Oh,  beloved,  the 
simple  statement,  "  God  is  love,"  is  the  spiritual  key  which  unlocks  every 
mystery.  Let  us,  in  the  closing  hours  of  these  inspiring  days,  voice  again 
to  the  world  the  angelic  benediction,  "  Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men." 

We  accept  as  a  foundation  principle,  that  we  become  in  character  like 
the  God  we  worship.  If  we  worship  a  God  whom  we  believe  is  partial 
toward  his  children,  then  will  we  and  the  laws  reflecting  our  thought,  be 
partial,  discriminating,  hence  unjust  and  oppressive.  Therefore,  the  speed- 
iest way  to  bring  justice,  righteousness,  peace,  and  liberty  to  the  world,  is- 
to  lead  the  nations  to  the  worship  of  a  "  God  of  Love." 

Fettered  by  materialistic  thoughts,  many  are  blinded  to  the  spiritual  veri- 
ties being  revealed.  As  a  most  suggestive  thought  in  this  direction,  I  quote 
the  following  remarkable  sonnet  from  Blanco  White  : 

Mysterious  night !    When  our  first  parent  knew 

Thee  from  report  divine,  and  heard  thy  name. 

Did  he  not  tremble  for  this  lovely  frame, 

This  glorious  canopy  of  light  and  blue  ? 

Yet  'neath  a  curtain  of  translucent  dew, 

Bathed  in  the  rays  of  the  great  setting  flame, 

Hesperus  with  the  host  of  Heaven  came, 

And  lo !  Creation  widened  in  man's  view  ! 

Who  could  have  thought  such  darkness  lay  concealed 

Within  thy  beams,  O  Sun  ?  or  who  could  find 

Whilst  fly  and  leaf  and  insect  stood  revealed, 

That  to  such  countless  orbs  thou  mad'st  us  blind  ? 

Why  do  we  then  shun  death  with  anxious  strife  ? 

If  light  can  thus  deceive,  wherefore  not  life  ? 

Let  us  also  reflect  upon  this  wonderful  prophecy,  made  by  one  of  our 
beloved  pioneers,  Sojourner  Truth — thoughts  revealed  to  her  inner  conscious- 


418  International  Council  of  Women. 

ness  after  she  was  one  hundred  years  old,  she  being  unable  to  read  or  write : 
"  We  talk  of  a  beginning,  but  there  is  no  beginning  but  the  beginning  of  a 
wrong.  All  else  is  from  God,  and  is  from  everlasting  to  everlasting.  All 
that  has  a  beginning  will  have  an  ending.  God  is  without  end,  and  all  that 
is  good  is  without  end.  God  is  a  great  ocean  of  love,  and  we  live  and  move 
in  him  as  the  fishes  in  the  sea,  filled  with  his  love  and  spirit,  and  his  throne 
is  in  the  hearts  of  his  people." 

Some  may  claim  that  this  philosophy  conflicts  with  the  letter  of  some 
parts  of  the  Bible.  Let  us  not  forget  the  statement  that  the  letter  killeth, 
but  the  spirit  maketh  alive.  We  were  endowed  with  reason  before  we  were 
enriched  by  Bibles,  else  we  could  not  distinguish  between  the  false  and  the 
true.  When  the  young  man  came  to  Jesus  with  the  most  vitally  important 
question,  "  Good  Master,  what  must  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life  ?  "  what  was 
the  answer  ?  Listen  and  tell  me  if  I  have  not  the  highest  authority  recog- 
nized by  the  Christian  Church  when  I  say  that  all  true  religion  rests  upon  the 
statement,  "  God  is  love."  Listen  to  the  answer  of  the  Christ.  "  Why 
callest  thou  me  good?  There  is  but  One  good,  that  is  God."  And,  again, 
■"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself;  on  these  two  commandments  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets." 
"  God  is  love,"  and  love  is  the  executive  force  of  the  universe.     Love  is  God. 

Miss  Anthony.  As  Mrs.  Livermore  is  engaged  in  preaching  twice  to-day, 
she  has  excused  herself  from  coming  here  this  afternoon.  I  must  say  that  one 
of  the  most  encouraging  signs  of  the  times  is  the  eagerness  with  which  the  min- 
isters of  Washington  have  seized  upon  our  women  to  preach  for  them  morn- 
ing, afternoon,  and  evening.     It  wasn't  so  in  the  olden  days ! 

After  the  singing  of  James  Montgomery's  beautiful  defini- 
tion of  "  Prayer,"  Mrs.  Isabella  Beecher  Hooker  addressed 
the  Council. 

Mrs.  Hooker.  On  this  Easter  Day  the  thought  that  I  would  like  to  fix 
upon  all  our  minds  is  that  the  great  work  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  whose 
resurrection  morning  we  celebrate,  was  to  bring  immortality  to  life.  *  *  * 
I  am,  friends,  (I  believe  in  telling  the  truth  about  one's  self  and  not  hiding  it), 
a  Christian  Spiritualist.  I  am  also  a  scientific  spiritualist,  and  supported 
by  Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  whom  I  put  at  the  head  of  English-speaking 
scientists,  I  make  the  assertion  that  the  doctrine  of  immortality  is 
absolutely  proved  by  science  and  by  precisely  the  same  methods  as  are  used 
to  prove  any  other  scientific  truth.  So  to-day  we  claim  that  under  the  name 
of  Occultism,  Theosophy,  Christian  Science,  Mind  Cure,  and  metaphysics, 
the  philosophy  of  Spiritualism  is  being  illustrated  and  the  great  doctrine  of 
immortality  brought  to  light. 

Being  asked  what  effect  this  has  had  on  my  own  religious  belief,  I  have 
formulated  a  little  confession  of  faith  for  myself,  and  if  you  will  listen  to 
this,  it  is  all  I  have  to  say : 


Religions  Symposium.  419 

First.  I  believe  in  one  first  great  cause  of  all  things,  whether  of  mind  or 
matter,  soul  or  body — the  Creator  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being  as  incarnated  souls,  and  whom  the  nations  and  peoples  of  the  earth 
have  worshiped  as  the  great  "  Sky  Father  "  since  time  began. 

Second.  I  believe  that  the  whole  creation  of  mind  and  matter  "groaneth 
and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now,"  and  always  has  groaned  in  these 
travail-pains,  which  were  and  are  the  birth-pains  into  a  more  glorious  life, 
even  the  new  heavens  and  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness,  and 
that  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  this  body,  will  these  pains  be  lengthened 
or  shortened  in  the  life  to  come.  "  If  thy  right  hand  offend  thee  cut  it  off;" 
it  is  better  for  thee  to  enter  into  spirit  life  maimed  than,  having  two  hands, 
to  go  into  hell  (hades,  or  the  land  of  spirits),  fire  that  never  shall  be 
■quenched,  "where  their  worm  dieth  not  and  their  fire  is  not  quenched;" 
which  means  that  when  the  spirit  molecules  have  set  toward  selfishness,  all 
the  days  of  our  incarnation,  they  will  keep  to  their  drift  eternally,  when  dis- 
robed of  the  flesh,  except  the  tide  be  turned  toward  holiness  by  some  power 
greater  than  ourselves.  In  the  God  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian,  the 
Buddhist  and  the  Mahometan,  alike,  we  may  recognize  the  all-wise,  tender, 
brooding  Mother  Spirit  of  the  Universe,  under  whose  providential  discipline, 
•called  evolution  by  the  scientist,  and  fore-ordination  and  decrees  by  the 
theologian,  all  souls  shall  at  last  reach  their  culmination  and  become  crea- 
tors in  their  turn.  For  by  the  depths  of  the  love  we  bear  our  own  children, 
by  our  capacity  for  self-sacrifice,  not  only  for  those  we  love,  but  for  those 
who  are  not  our  own,  but  only  of  our  race  or  country,  or  even  of  the  family 
of  man,  we  may  take  hold  of  our  ultimate  destiny,  and  know  for  a  certainty 
what  we  shall  be  when  the  ages  of  the  future  shall  have  wrought  upon  us  as 
the  ages  of  the  past  have  done.  "  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God, 
and  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be." 

Third.  I  believe  that  matter,  not  less  than  spirit,  is  permeated  by  the 
Divine  presence,  which,  working  in  all  things  according  to  the  law  of  its 
being,  whether  material  or  spiritual,  is  bringing  to  pass  the  wonders  of  cre- 
ation which  we  behold,  and  of  whose  infinity  in  moments  of  inspired  vision 
we  catch  a  glimpse.  In  all  this  the  Eternal  One  would  not  be  alone,  and 
could  not,  by  the  very  nature  of  benevolent  being.  Hence  we,  his  offspring, 
are  called,  each  in  our  way,  according  to  our  ability,  to  join  in  this  glorious 
work  of  creating  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteous- 
ness. And  by  so  much  as  we  join  hands  and  hearts  with  the  disembodied 
souls  who  have  fought  the  good  fight  and  finished  their  course  here  below, 
and  held  communion  with  them  on  these  great  themes,  we  shall  be  mutually 
strengthened  and  encouraged  in  the  redemptive  work  to  which  we  are  all 
consecrated,  whether  we  know  it  or  not,  by  the  great,  Divine  Over-Soul 
whom  we  reverently  call  God.  And  in  the  end  we,  too,  shall  become  medi- 
ators, every  one,  between  God  and  man,  between  mind  and  matter,  between 


420  International  Council  of  Women, 

spirit  and  body,  like  unto  Jesus  of  Nazereth,  the  great  teacher,  prophet,  and 
prince  of  the  later  centuries. 

Miss  Anthony.  Mrs.  Howe  is  on  the  programme  to  speak  to  us  this  after- 
noon, but  I  do  not  see  her  here.  I  now  present  to  you  Elizabeth  G. 
Stuart,  of  Massachusetts. 

THE    POWER   OF   THOUGHT. 

Mrs.  Stuart.  I  come  before  you  as  a  member  of  the  organization 
known  as  Humanity :  passport  to  that  organization,  Spirit  of  Truth ;  basis  of 
work,  Common  Sense  ;  theory,  Evolution.  What  is  truth?  Pythagoras  said, 
"  Truth  is  so  great  a  perfection  that  if  God  were  to  render  himself  visible  to 
man,  he  would  choose  Light  for  his  body  and  Truth  for  his  soul !"  Truth 
is  one,  with  infinite  expressions;  expression  implies  limitation,  while  truth 
is  unlimited.  Truth  rests  upon  the  law  of  identity,  established  through  the 
law  of  polar  or  real  opposites  and  its  twin  sister,  the  law  of  contradictories, 
revealed  to  man  by  the  science  of  numbers.  It  is  to  that  science  man  must 
look  for  a  solution  of  the  problems  of  life  in  their  varied  relations. 

No  science  of  ethics,  which  exempts  the  physical,  can  be  true,  since  it 
makes  man  dependent  upon  the  conditions  of  the  body.  No  system  of 
physics  can  be  true  which  strikes  from  its  premises  the  spiritual  law,  since  it 
degrades  morals  to  a  dependence  upon  the  physical.  Man  as  a  unit  is  gov- 
erned by  one  law  through  his  entire  being,  spiritually,  intellectually,  and 
physically,  ever  in  the  one  order  from  the  higher  to  the  next  lower. 

The  imaging  faculty  rs  the  highest  known  to  man  ;  through  it  he  ex- 
presses the  ideal,  and  it  is  the  means  by  which  he  expresses  to  the  senses 
whatever  intellect  accepts,  thus  forming  the  relation  between  mind  and  body. 
Through  that  open  door  fear  enters  and  stamps  upon  the  body  distorted, 
untrue  mental  images,  which  physicians  name,  then  proceed  to  try  to  erase 
from  the  body  by  physical  means. 

It  is  a  self-evident  absurdity  that  a  picture  in  mind  can  be  removed  by 
rubbing  the  body.  Fear  in  the  mind,  frorn  any  cause,  increases  the  heat  of 
the  body ;  and,  as  the  thermometer  rises  higher  and  higher,  we  see  the  differ- 
ent degrees  known  as  first  inflammation,  then  congestion,  ulceration,  and 
so  on. 

"As  a  man  thinketh,  that  he  becometh."  As  is  the  mind,  so  is  the 
thought ;  as  is  the  thought,  so  is  the  image  expressed  in  form  externally. 
Let  him  keep  his  picture-gallery  free  from  impurity,  who  would  have  pure 
blood.  Whatever  he  does  not  desire  to  appear  in  the  external,  must  be  watch- 
fully kept  out  of  the  mind ;  once  there,  its  picture  hangs  upon  the  inner 
walls,  ready  for  the  favorable  moment  to  appear.  The  imaging  faculty  is 
both  cause  and  cure  for  all  bodily  discord. 

Miss  Anthony.     Let  me  now  introduce  to  you  Mrs.  Ednah  D.  Cheney,  of 
Boston. 

Mrs.  Cheney.     I  never  feel  quite  free  to  refuse  to  bear  witness  to  the  faith 


Religious  Symposium.  421 

that  is  in  me  whenever  I  am  called  upon,  because  it  has  been  the  experience 
of  my  life,  that  words  that  have  been  droppsd  without  any  idea  of  their 
weight  and  importance,  have  sometimes  fructified  in  human  hearts  and  borne 
good  fruit.  So  that,  happily,  however  weak  the  voice,  we  may  reach  some 
heart  and  do  it  good.  And  on  this  beautiful  Easter  Day  we  should  all  like 
to  do  that  if  we  could. 

As  I  sat  listening  to  the  creed  of  our  friend,  Mrs.  Hooker,  I  thought  of 
the  two  great  principles  of  religion  which  are  so  often  expressed  by  my 
great  teacher,  Theodore  Parker,  the  "  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brother- 
hood of  man,"  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  those  two  sentences  would  com- 
prise, as  well  as  anything  I  could  say,  the  thought  that  I  would  like  to  leave 
in  our  hearts  this  afternoon.  With  him  the  fatherhood  of  God  always  meant 
the  motherhood,  too.  It  was  his  almost  universal  custom  to  begin  those 
deep  and  tender  prayers,  which  dwelt  in  the  memory  of  his  hearers  as  a 
blessing  all  through  the  week,  "  God,  our  Father  and  Mother  both."  And 
so,  when  he  said  the  brotherhood  of  man,  he  meant  always  as  we  mean  when 
we  say  it — the  brothers  and  sisters  both.  This  has  seemed  to  me  a  most 
religious  meeting  all  through  the  week.  For  though  we  have  said  very  little 
about  these  great  religious  truths  in  their  abstract  expression,  the  whole  drift 
and  tone  of  the  speeches  have  been  in  the  recognition  of  those  two  great 
truths.  I  think  when  we  have  asked  for  equal  rights  and  equal  opportunities 
for  women,  it  has  been  because  we  have  always  remembered  that  woman  was 
the  child  of  God  just  as  much  as  man,  feeling  that  the  poorest  and  most 
wronged  member  of  this  human  race,  was  our  brother  and  our  sister ;  and  so 
we  can  carry  these  great  truths  always  in  our  hearts  and  our  lives,  and  they 
are  truths  that  we  all  can  unite  on.  Perhaps  I  love  the  subtleties  of  meta- 
physics and  theology  just  as  well  as  any  one.  I  can  enjoy  them  intellectually, 
but  I  think  we  can  all  differ  in  those.  We  can  all  come  back  and  unite  in 
these  great  truths  of  religion  which  lie  at  the  base  of  all  morality;  and  if 
we  could  only  carry  them  out  into  works  we  should  find,  if  we  added  to  them 
the  wisdom  of  experience  and  the  wisdom  of  thought,  that  to-day  they 
struck  the  key-note ;  that  they  resolved  all  our  difficulties  and  all  our  differ- 
ences into  harmony. 

I  heard  yesterday  that  some  one  sent  a  message  of  regret  that  this  meet- 
ing took  place  in  Holy  Week;  but  it  has  been  a  holy  week  to  those  who  are 
not  wont  to  think  that  religion  depends  on  times  and  seasons,  but  on  conse- 
cration to  right  purposes  and  to  great  philanthropic  and  human  enterprises; 
and  I  trust  it  will  live  long  in  our  memories,  and  that  we  shall  date  back 
many  a  gain  for  humanity,  and  see  that  it  was  begun  in  this  week  that  we 
have  spent  together  in  our  National  Capital,  which  we  trust  may  be  redeemed 
from  all  that  is  debasing,  all  that  is  immoral,  all  that  is  wrong,  and  hereafter 
be  pointed  out  as  the  city  of  God,  where  right  and  justice  prevail. 

Miss  Anthony.     There  are  a  great  many  on  the  platform  who  want  to 


422  International  Council  of  Women. 

speak  and  give  their  highest  thoughts  as  to  the  true  life  and  true  theory;  but 
we  shall  have  to  stop,  and  before  we  close  I  would  like  to  call  your 
attention  to  the  grand  motto,  which  the  great  leader  of  this  movement, 
Lucretia  Mott,  used  to  write  in  the  albums  when  the  young  people 
came  to  her  for  autographs,  which  was,  it  seems  to  me,  the  basis  upon 
which  all  our  investigations  with  regard  to  the  present  and  the  future,  with 
regard  to  God  and  man,  should  be  founded.  Her  motto  was  :  "  Truth  for 
authority;  not  authority  for  truth."  It  seems  to  me  that  the  great  danger 
to  the  race  is,  that  as  fast  as  we  are  emancipated  from  one  authority,  we 
drop  into  another,  whether  it  is  founded  in  truth  or  not.  Hence,  friends,. 
I  feel  that  the  work  for  women  to-day,  in  religion,  as  in  every  other 
department  of  thought  and  of  action,  is  to  make  truth  their  authority. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  two  pamphlets,  which,  through  mistake, 
have  been  pushed  aside  with  the  abundance  of  literature  t  hat  has  been  cir- 
culated at  the  door.  The  first  is  entitled  "The  Outlook  for  Woman,"  a 
sermon  preached  by  Dr.  James  C.  Jackson,  of  Dansville,  N.  Y.,  but  a  short 
time  since.     The  sentiment  that  he  has  placed  on  the  title-page  is  : 

"  Thou,  from  on  high,  perceivest  it  were  better 
AH  men  and  women  should  on  earth  be  free; 
Laws  that  enslave  and  tyrannies  that  fetter 
Snap  and  evanish  at  the  touch  of  thee." 

This  little  pamphlet  Dr.  Jackson  bad  printed  and  sent  down  a  thousand 
copies  to  be  distributed  among  the  friends  in  attendance  upon  the  Council. 
I  hope  you  will  take  one  as  you  pass  out,  and,  when  you  have  read  it,, 
give  it  to  somebody  who  needs  it.  One  great  work  in  all  this  reform  is  to- 
possess  ourselves  of  all  the  literature  on  the  question  and  pass  it  around. 
The  other  pamphlet  is  a  letter  to  the  International  Council  of  Women  at 
Washington  from  Josephine  E.  Butler,  of  England.  You  all  know  that  is- 
worth  reading. 

Last  Sunday  afternoon  was  appropriated  to  the  women  who  had  had  the- 
hands  of  men  laid  on  their  heads  in  ordination.  This  afternoon  we  have 
devoted  to  the  highest  utterances  of  women  whom  men  have  not  ordained,, 
excepting  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell.  I  want  to  call  on  Miss  Wil- 
lard,  but  perhaps  we  ought  to  stop  here.  [Applause  and  calls  for  Miss- 
Willard.]  Well,  Miss  Willard,  come  forward  and  tell  us  what  you  think 
about  true  religion. 

Miss  Willard.  Dear  friends,  I  am  of  a  most  excursive  sort  of  mind, 
naturally  very  difficult  to  train  and  to  prune,  especially  on  spiritual  subjects. 
I  remember,  as  a  little  girl,  when  this  dear  old  lady,  now  in  her  eighty-first  year, 
was  a  student  at  Oberlin,  and  my  mother  was  a  student  there,  too,  although 
she  had  three  little  children  around  her.  Father  and  mother  went  there- 
after they  had  their  family.  I  was  playing  around  with  my  toys  on  the- 
floor,  and  my  mother  pointed  to  me  and  said  :  "  Mrs.  Hills,  there  is  Frankie; 
she  is  my  little  infidel."     And  Mrs.  Hills  was  shocked  at  my  mother,  because 


Religious  Symposium.  423 

she  thought  it  was  a  fearful  thing  for  her  to  say.  But  my  mother  was  a  very 
wise  woman  ;  she  knew  I  was  a  kind  of  intellectual  trout,  and  she  fished  and 
angled  after  me  a  good  deal,  humoring  my  coy  ways,  and  never  seeming 
shocked  when  I  told  her  my  outreachings  of  spirit  this  way  and  that.  Some- 
times I  used,  in  my  audacity  of  nature,  which  has  been  very  much  tempered 
in  later  years,  I  used  to  try  to  think  up  something  that  would  scare  mother 
and  make  her  think  that  I  was  going  to  be  very  bad,  but  I  never  could. 
When  I  had  misbehaved  and  wasn't  good  and  nice  as  a  little  girl,  she  always 
used  to  say  :  "  Why,  they  have  brought  in  some  changeling  ;  some  peddler 
has  dropped  a  strange  child  here  ;  where  is  my  nice  little  Frances?  "  So, 
then,  it  didn't  pay  to  be  ugly.  And  when  I  would  say  my  very  daring  things 
about  not  believing,  and  asked  her  how  she  knew  that  Book  was  a  true 
Book,  that  was  on  father's  knee  every  morning  at  family  worship,  she  never 
troubled  to  give  me  any  particular  answer,  but  would  stroke  me  on  the 
head,  and  sometimes  break  out  into  a  sweet  old  hymn  ;  I  was  very  fond  of 
hymns,  and  I  think  mother  won  me  by  the  singing  of  the  faith  she  loved. 

When  I  went  to  school  we  had  our  twilight  hour,  and  my  teachers, 
some  that  I  loved  especially,  would  come  into  my  room  and  bring  in  some 
other  girls,  and  they  would  have  an  evening  sing  out  of  the  hymn-book,  for 
when  I  went  away  to  school  it  was  given  out  in  the  prayer-meeting  the  very 
first  time  my  name  was  mentioned  in  Evanston,  where  I  have  lived  thirty 
years  and  been  a  good  Methodst  twenty-nine  of  them,  that  here  was  a 
young  woman  of  some  promise,  of  a  sort  of  adventurous  nature,  and  she 
was  an  infidel,  and  they  hoped  the  people  would  pray  for  her  ;  but  they  didn't 
take  me  and  try  to  shape  me  and  put  me  into  a  place,  for  I  am  pretty  sure 
if  they  had  I  should  not  have  gone  into  it,  but  it  was  so  sweet  at  home,  and 
mother  didn't  have  any  canting  ways  of  talking,  and  I  knew  mother  couldn't 
be  far  wrong,  and  so  I  think  that  the  divinity  that  she  was  to  me,  and  my 
father's  earnest  life  brought  me  into  a  way  that  otherwise  I  might  not  have 
known.  I  should  have  been  one  of  the  easiest  to  have  gone  into  the  paths 
that  mother  would  have  grieved  over. 

And  while  to  all  I  have  heard  to-day  I  have  listened  reverently,  sisterly, 
kindly,  just  as  the  women  are  now  listening  to  me — they  are  just  as  willing 
that  I  should  speak  my  deepest  thoughts  as  I  was  willing 'that  they  should — 
still,  I  will  tell  you  how  it  is  with  me.  I  go  like  a  bee  into  the  gardens  of 
thought ;  I  love  to  listen  to  all  the  voices,  and  I  go  buzzing  around  under 
the  bonnets  of  the  prettiest  flowers  and  the  most  fragrant,  just  like  this  bee, 
and  when  it  is  a  lovely  life  and  a  sweet  life,  like  the  lives  of  those  who  have 
spoken  to  us  to-day,  it  seems  to  me  I  get  a  lot  of  honey  ;  but  I  have  a  won- 
derful bee-line  fashion  of  carrying  it  all  home  to  my  own  Methodist  hive.  I 
couldn't  do  any  other  way.  I  am  made  that  fashion  ;  it  is  part  of  me.  It 
is  worked  into  the  woof  and  warp  of  my  spirit,  the  result  of  the  sweet 
old  ways  in  which  I  was  brought  up.     I  should  have  to  deny  myself  in  my 


424  International  Council  of  Women. 

inmost  heart,  if  I  didn't  believe  what  mother  had  taught  me  at  her  knee.  If 
I  didn't,  above  all  the  teachings  and  all  the  voices,  reverence  the  voice  that 
calls  to  me  from  the  pages  of  the  Bible;  if  I  didn't,  above  all  things  and 
always,  in  my  mentality  and  spirituality,  translate  God  into  the  term  of  Jesus 
Christ.  I  can  not  rest  except  there.  And  so  I  frankly  tell  you  how  it  is 
with  me  this  sweet  Easter  Day.  The  inmost  voice,  deep  down  in  my  heart, 
says :  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit !  Receive  it  as  I  sit  here  listening  to 
women  whom  I  love  and  revere  and  honor  for  their  loyalty  to  what  they 
believe  is  the  highest  and  best.  Receive  it  as  I  go  forth  into  the  crowded 
ways  of  life  with  so  many  voices  calling  me  on  every  hand.  Receive  my 
spirit !  It  will  be  the  last  thought  that  this  brain  will  think,  it  will  be  the 
last  quiver  of  this  heart  that  has  ached  and  rejoiced.  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive 
my  spirit  ! ' ' 

Miss  Anthony.  This  evening  will  close  the  sessions  of  this  eight-day 
Council,  and  Mrs.  Wallace  has  left  the  platform  because  she  felt  she  could 
not  perform  her  duty  this  evening  if  she  remained  here  any  longer.  Mrs. 
Stanton  has  been  absent  from  this  platform  so  much  of  the  time  yesterday 
and  to-day,  because  she  is  preparing  her  last  words  to  the  Council,  as  to  its 
meaning  and  its  results.  So  I  hope  you  will  all  feel  that  the  very  best  of  the 
whole  week,  is  to  come  at  the  last  session  this  evening.  I  must  say  just  here, 
that  to  me  it  is  perfectly  splendid  that  all  these  women  who  have  spoken  this 
afternoon,  each  one  having  a  glimpse  of  what  seems  to  her  the  great  truth, 
can  come  here  and  express  their  highest  thought  with  a  feeling  that  they  do 
not  wish  to  force  anybody  else  into  thinking  just  as  they  do.  That  is  the 
lesson  which  this  Council  has  taught  to-day.  Women  are  not  so  narrow  but 
that  they  can  come  together  and  talk  over  their  religious  beliefs,  and  see 
down  beneath  the  whole,  the  true  spirit,  the  true  woman,  and  be  ready  to 
work  together  in  spite  of  their  differences. 

Samuel  Longfellow's  beautiful  hymn,  "The  Church  Univer- 
sal," was  then  sung.     Adjourned. 


SUNDAY,  APRIL  1,  1888. 

EVENING  SESSION." 
CLOSE    OF   THE    COUNCIL. 

Invocation  by  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Hunt. 

The  Chairman.  The  delegates  to  this  Council,  representing  over  fifty 
organizations,  of  different  nations,  yesterday,  in  meeting  assembled,  adopted 
constitutions  for  permanent  Councils  of  Women,  both  National  and  Interna- 
tional. The  basic  principles  were  very  nearly  the  same,  and  you  may  read 
the  constitutions,  the  officers  elected,  and  the  incipient  steps  which  have 
been  taken  by  this  Council,  in  the  Woman's  Tribune  of  a  later  day.*  Mad- 
ame Bogelot  will  now  read  you  her  first  English  words — a  farewell  to  us. 

Madame  Bogelot.  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Madame  President :  At  the 
beginning  of  your  International  Council  you  have  lent  to  me  good  will  in 
hearing  my  notes  in  French  language.  They  expressed  the  sentiments  of 
my  heart,  and  gave  a  description  of  the  works  of  my  society.  But  I  grieve 
very  much  not  to  know  your  language,  especially  as  I  was  alone  to  represent 
my  beloved  France,  your  sister.  Everywhere  and  always  I  have  found  here 
sympathy  and  helpfulness.  Also  I  have  listened  to  your  discourses  with  a 
very  great  attention.  My  head  is  broken,  but  my  heart  is  very  happy  because 
I  know  you  will  be  glad  in  hearing  me  tell  it  in  your  own  language.  I  will 
return  in  fifteen  days,  but  I  shall  visit,  before  I  go,  the  Baltimore,  Philadel- 
phia, New  York,  and  Boston  prisons.  If  I  find  your  prisoners  better  cared 
for  than  ours,  I  shall  pray  my  French  brothers  to  imitate  my  American 
brothers. 

Excuse  my  audacity.  I  try  to  speak  English  for  the  first  time.  Accept 
expression  of  my  sincere  gratitude.  To  speak  English  is  to  be  of  your 
family.  Not  forget  me.  I  not  forget  you.  I  thank  also  my  friend  and 
expounder,  Miss  Bradley,  of  New  York,  doctor  of  Paris  faculty. 

Madame  Bogelot's  broken  English  was  received  with  great 
appreciation,  and  the  hearty  applause  conveyed  to  her  the  sym- 
pathy and  congratulations  of  all. 

The  Chairman.  Miss  Allie  Trygg,  of  Finland,  an  associate  of  the  Bar- 
oness Gripenberg,  who  has  been  ill,  will  say  a  word  to  you,  also  in  English. 
You  will  remember  that  at  the  opening  of  this  Council,  she  gave  us  her 
greeting  in  her  native  language. 

Miss  Trygg.  When  I,  last  Monday,  had  the  honor  to  speak  to  you  from 
this  platform,  I  was  obliged  to  do  so  in  my  own  language  because  it  was 
♦See  report  of  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

28 


426  International  Council  of  Women. 

impossible  for  me  to  speak  in  English.  Now  I  will  try  to  say  a  few  words 
in  your  language,  for  you  see,  among  all  the  wonderful  things  this  Inter- 
national Council  has  done,  it  has  even  beautifully  improved  my  English.  I 
must,  however,  beg  you  to  excuse  my  language  and  not  mind  the  grammar 
or  pronunciation.     Only  think  of  the  feeling  of  my  heart. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  come  from  a  little  poor  country,  far  in  the 
North  of  Europe.  Many  of  you  have,  perhaps,  not  heard  the  name  of 
it,  although  I,  to  my  astonishment,  have  found  that  you  here  in  America 
know  much  more  about  our  country,  than  in  England.  This  country 
is  Finland.  Europe  is  old,  but  contains  many  countries  yet  young  in 
culture.  Our  little  land  is  one  of  these  new-born  in  culture.  I  must,  how- 
ever, inform  you  that  we  have  the  most  northern  railway  in  the  world. 
Everything  there  is  new  and  young;  that  is  also  the  case  with  the  woman's 
question.  I  leave  to  you  to  decide  how  old  it  is,  in  telling  you  that  I  am 
one  of  the  pioneers  there.  But,  although  it  is  young  it  is  full  of  life.  This 
is  evident  in  that  we  have  sent  two  from  this  little  distant  country,  when  so 
many  richer  and  larger  nations  have  sent  none. 

As  I  wrote  to  Miss  Anthony  when  inviting  me  to  the  Council,  "An 
International  Woman's  Congress  has  always  been  the  great  dream  of  my  life." 
Since  the  hour  I  read  in  my  country's  newspapers  about  this  Council,  I  had 
rest  neither  day  nor  night  before  I  was  sure  I  could  come.  How  joyfully  I 
hastened  over  the  ocean  !  No,  I  did  not  hasten,  because  I  came  by  the 
oldest  and  slowest  of  the  Cunard  line  steamers,  but  I  hastened  in  my  heart, 
and  my  only  fear  was  that  the  reality  would  not  correspond  to  my  hope.  It 
has  always  been  so  in  my  whole  life,  that  where  I  have  been  waiting  and 
hoping  most,  there  I  always  have  been  most  disappointed  in  my  hope.  But 
now  here,  the  very  first  time  in  my  life,  it  has  not  been  as  before.  Here  the 
reality  has  ten  and  a  hundred  times  exceeded  my  greatest  hope.  Every  day 
I  have  enjoyed  more  and  more  of  what  I  have  seen  and  heard. 

As  I  already  have  mentioned,  the  woman  question  is  still  new  in  Finland. 
It  is  a  little  baby,  and  we  don't  know  what  shall  be  of  it ;  we  only  have  a 
sincere  belief  and  hope  in  its  future.  And  even  this  belief — I  am  ashamed 
to  confess  it — has  sometimes  failed  me.  I  have  seen  my  countrywomen  and 
also  the  women  of  other  countries,  occupy  their  souls  with  insignificant 
trifles,  instead  of  letting  them  grow  for  the  work  of  the  great  questions  of 
humanity.  When  I  have  seen  that  the  chief  purpose  of  their  life  has  been 
to  adorn  their  bodies  instead  of  their  souls,  then  I  have  sometimes  felt  very 
weak  in  my  belief.  You  see,  also,  the  strongest  might  sometimes  feel  weak. 
You  remember  that  one  of  the  greatest  among  them  that  are  born  of  women, 
John  the  Baptist,  when  in  prison,  was  seized  by  the  spirit  of  doubt  and  sent 
his  disciples  to  Christ  to  ask,  "Art  thou  he  that  cometh,  or  look  we  for  an- 
other ?  ' '  Then  I  crossed  the  ocean  and  came  here.  I  have  been  with  you 
all  these  days,  and  since  I  have  seen  how  you  have  loved,  suffered,  and 


Close  of  the  Council.  427 

worked,  now  when  I  can,  so  to  say,  touch  with  my  hands  the  great  results  of 
women's  work,  I  need  not  more  believe  and  hope,  now  I  know.  "And 
when  that  which  is  perfect  has  come,  that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done 
away;  "  therefore  I  now  have  come  to  a  point  in  my  position  towards  the 
woman  question  as  much  higher  than  before,  as  knowledge  is  higher  than 
hope.  Therefore  is  my  heart  full  of  joy,  and  I  feel  quiet  for  the  future.  I 
can  say  with  Jacob,  when  he  returned  to  his  fatherland  from  Mesopotamia, 
"Only  with  my  staff  I  passed  over  this  Jordan,  and  now  I  am  become  two 
bands."  As  Jacob,  I  shall  return  to  my  fatherland,  crossing  the  Jordan — 
or  a  water  larger  than  that,  as  you  know — richer,  as  he  was,  but  my  riches 
are  better  than  his.  I  feel  myself  rich  because  I  now  have  the  sincere  belief 
in  women's  love,  women's  power,  women's  ability,  women's  energy,  which 
never  can  fail.  And  for  that  belief  I  wish  to  thank  you  from  the  very  bot- 
tom of  my  heart. 

We  in  Finland  have  known  only  a  little  about  your  grand  work  here;  but 
hereafter  it  shall  not  be  my  fault  if  the  women  in  Finland  shall  not  know 
more  about  you.  As  you  have  been  a  living  sermon  to  me,  you  will  be  it 
for  the  other  women  of  my  country.  If  their  feet  should  stumble,  if  their 
heads  feel  tired,  their  hearts  discouraged,  then  you  shall  stand  before  us  as 
the  great  patriarchs  and  prophets  stood  for  the  author  of  the  Epistle  of  the 
Hebrews,  when  he  showed  his  congregation  all  those  who  had  with  patience 
run  the  race  that  was  set  before  them.  And  then  when  we  are  discouraged 
I  will  say  to  the  women  of  my  country,  "  Behold,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  !  There  we  have  so  great  a  cloud  of  witnesses  who  have  struggled 
and  won  the  victory.  Lay  aside  every  discouragement  which  doth  so 
easily  beset  us,  and  let  us  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us." 
Hereafter  there  will  be  a  golden  cable  of  sympathy  between  you  and  us. 
Every  victory  you  will  win  shall  be  ours;  you  work  not  only  for  the  women 
of  your  country,  but  for  the  women  of  the  whole  world.  I  will  not  longer 
occupy  your  precious  time.  I  will  finish  now,  thanking  you  from  the  very 
bottom  of  my  heart  for  everything;  also,  for  the  magnificent  hospitality 
you  have  shown  us.  You  have  taken  care  as  well  of  the  bodily  as  of  the 
spiritual  part  of  us.  I  thank  you  for  all  that  you  have  given  me  and  my 
country  through  me.     God  bless  your  work! 

Miss  Trygg  is  a  very  vivacious  and  earnest  speaker,  and  her 
charmingly  natural  manner  made  "her  address  very  attractive. 
She  was  warmly  applauded. 

Miss  Anthony.     And  now  we  must  have  a  farewell  from  Norway. 

Mrs.  Groth.     I  thank  you  very  much  for  all  your  hospitality  and  kindness. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  have  a  most  magnificent  thing  to  tell  you  this  even- 
ing. There  is  a  woman  in  this  city  who  has  authorized  me  to  announce 
that  she  has  appropriated  a  whole  block,  which  she  owns,  to  the  establish- 


428  International  Council  of  Womer 

ment  of  a  great  institution  for  the  education  of  women.  She  has  not 
decided  the  details,  or  exactly  what  it  shall  be,  but  it  is  for  the  education 
and  development  of  women,  intellectually,  morally,  spiritually,  politically, 
and  every  way  possible.  The  woman  is  "  Olivia  " — Mrs.  Briggs — who  will 
devote  her  beautiful  "  Maple  Square"  to  this  glorious  work  for  the  uplifting 
of  women  in  this  country. 

This  announcement  was  received  with  great  applause. 

Miss  Anthony.  I  introduce  to  you  now  a  Mother  in  Israel,  Mrs. 
Zerelda  G.  Wallace,  of  Indiana. 

Mrs.  Wallace.  I  am  announced  on  the  programme  to  give  you  an 
address  upon  the  moral  power  of  the  ballot.  I  shall  ask  your  indulgence  for 
myself,  as  you  often  are  asked  for  other  public  speakers,  to  allow  me  to  take 
my  text  and  leave  it.  Possibly  I  may  cross  it  at  right  angles  before  I  get 
through  ;  possibly  not. 

You  have  witnessed  in  the  last  week  in  this  city  a  wonderful  spectacle,  the 
first  on  record  in  the  history  of  the  past,  where  woman  from  ten  nationalities 
have  met  in  council  and  upon  this  platform,  to  plead  for  freedom  for  them- 
selves in  the  name  of  and  for  the  good  of  humanity.  Who  shall  tell,  my 
dear  friends,  the  significance  of  this  meeting,  and  who  shall  tell  what  will  be 
the  results?  It  bodes  good,  and  only  good,  to  the  race.  There  has  been 
nothing  more  misapprehended  by  the  public  than  this  effort  which  women 
are  making  to  secure  for  themselves  the  blessings  of  political  freedom.  And 
right  here  I  say  to  the  gentlemen  of  this  audience,  that  we  acknowledge  the 
obligations  which  we  are  under  to  you.  Only  in  these  United  States  of 
America,  where  freedom  has  done  so  much  for  manhood,  and  manhood  has 
done  so  much  for  womanhood,  could  such  a  meeting  as  this  be  possible—  the 
freest  nation  in  the  world,  where  a  thought  once  born  goes  reverberating 
around  the  globe, will  never  stop  in  its  march  till  all  humanity  is  free,  and  until 
this  tree  of  liberty,  which  was  planted  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  by  our 
forefathers,  watered  by  the  tears  of  women  and  the  blood  of  men,  shall  take 
deep  root,  and  all  the  nations  of  the  world  shall  bask  under  its  branches. 

It  is  the  privilege,  nay,  not  only  the  right  and  privilege,  but  the  duty,  of 
every  human  being  to  be  like  God  ;  that  was  the  intention  and  the  purpose 
from  the  beginning,  to  create  humanity  in  God's  image,  and  that  work  is 
going  on  to-day.  But  the  one  requisite  to  the  success  of  that  work  is  that 
humanity  must  be  free,  enjoying  liberty,  not  license ;  liberty  under  law, 
enacted  by  its  own  volition.  That  is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of 
God.  He  alone,  of  all  beings  in  the  universe,  governs  himself  by  self-im- 
posed laws.  And  humanity,  by  virtue  of  its  descent  from  God,  is  crowned 
king.  It  is  not  mind  nor  class  nor  race,  but  humanity,  that  is  the  king  of  the 
universe.  And  humanity,  by  virtue  of  its  relation  to  God,  is  immortal.  The 
first  requisite  for  this  building  which  the  Great  House-Builder  had  in  his 
thoughts  in  the  ages  of  the  past,  is  freedom.     Next  to  freedom  is  knowledge, 


Close  of  the  Council.  429 

and  next  to  knowledge  is  faith  in  the  moral  powers  of  the  universe  ;  faith  in 
God  ;  faith  in  our  own  origin,  and  faith  in  our  own  destiny. 

As  I  look  over  this  magnificent  continent  and  this  great  heritage  which 
God  has  given  us,  I  feel  that  here  humanity  is  to  work  out  this  grandest  of 
all  problems,  the  ability  of  the  race  for  self-government.  I  know  that  the 
men  of  this  nation  have  struggled  grandly  (and  succeeded,  in  a  meas- 
ure) to  work  out  this  problem.  But  you  can  not  do  it,  dear  brothers, 
without  the  aid  of  woman.  Woman  is  one-half  of  the  great  whole, 
and  she  lies  at  the  base  of  all  human  progress.  The  greatest  and  grand- 
est evolution  of  creation  will  be  humanity  perfected  in  the  image  of 
God ;  and  if  it  took  ages  and  ages  to  create  this  world  as  a  fit  habi- 
tation for  man  in  his  animal  and  material  conditions,  how  many  cen- 
turies will  it  take  to  perfect  man  himself?  So  I  regard  this  whole  question  as 
a  growth.  I  am  never  discouraged.  I  work  and  bide  the  working  of  the 
forces  which  I  can  see  already  put  in  motion,  which  shall  consummate  the  pur- 
poses of  the  Divine.  This  Council  is  no  small  indication  that  that  purpose 
is  nearing  its  completion. 

Speaking  of  the  great  inheritance  given  us  upon  which  we  are  to  work  out 
this  grandest  of  problems,  we  are  to-day  the  richest  nation  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  of  any  nation  in  the  world.  We  could  buy  out  Russia, 
Austria,  Norway,  Sweden,  Australia,  South  America,  Africa,  and  almost  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  dollar  for  dollar.  Does  anybody  believe  that  God 
has  given  to  us  such  a  heritage  as  that  for  our  own  self-aggrandizement  ?  that 
we  are  to  fold  our  arms  about  us  and  enjoy  this  heritage  alone  ?  No  ;  he  has 
given  us  this  under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  and  we  are  expected,  nay,  it 
is  our  duty,  under  the  Divine  Providence,  to  work  out  here  this  problem 
and  demonstrate  that  we  are  able  to  govern  ourselves ;  that  we  are  not  only 
to  do  that,  but  we  are  to  magnify  God's  wisdom  in  our  creation.  I  am  not 
one  of  those  who  believe  that  humanity  is  to  be  a  failure,  and  this  republic 
to  perish  from  the  earth.  The  merest  tyro  in  business  would  not  have  put 
forth  such  energies  as  God  has  put  forth  for  humanity,  if  it  were  to  be  pro- 
nounced a  failure.  No,  dear  friends,  never  lose  faith  in  that  power  outside 
ourselves  first,  but  incarnated  in  ourselves  now,  that  is  to  make  for  righteous- 
ness. You  may  say  that  is  like  a  woman,  full  of  fanaticism,  full  of  emotion. 
But  what  is  it  that  distinguishes  personality  from  force — dead  matter  !  A 
gentleman  said  here  the  other  day  that  he  believed  he  was  cut  out  for  a 
woman,  because  his  emotions  ran  away  with  him.  It  is  emotion,  it  is  mind, 
it  is  thought,  it  is  feeling,  which  distinguishes  humanity  from  brute  force. 
Not  only  does  it  do  that,  but  it  shows  us  our  relationship  to  the  great  First 
Cause.  If  we,  his  offspring,  have  personality ;  if  we,  his  offspring,  have  mind  ; 
if  we  his  offspring  have  thought,  and  feeling,  our  Father  has  also. 

We  heard  arguments  to-day  as  to  what  science  would  do  outside  of  reve- 
lation.    I  want  no  higher  science  than  I  read  right  here  to  convince  me  of 


430  International  Council  of  Women. 

my  relationship  to  the  great  Infinite.  But  in  order,  dear  friends,  to 
work  out  successfully  this  great  problem  which  God  has  given  us,  we 
must  bring  our  laws  into  harmony  with  his  will.  And  what  is  that  will? 
"  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son  that  none 
should  perish,  but  all  should  have  eternal  life."  This  is  the  will  of  God — 
that  we  work  for  humanity.  Christ  recognized,  when  he  was  here,  that  any 
work  done  for  humanity  was  done  for  him.  And  if  humanity  would  gov- 
ern itself,  if  it  would  be  like  God,  it  must  work  for  the  benefit  and  advance- 
ment of  the  race.  The  great  apostle  tells  us  that  our  faith  shall  be  swal- 
lowed up  in  knowledge,  and  hope,  in  fruition  ;  that  love  is  the  immortal 
passion  that  endures  forever ;  love  only  is  immortal,  and  if  we  would  be  like 
God,  if  we  would  reach  that  immortality  that  he  has  in  store  for  us,  if  we 
would  reach  that  development  of  character  which  it  is  his  purpose  that  we 
should  reach,  our  hearts  must  be  permeated  with  love  to  him  first,  and  we 
must  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  growth  of  civilization.  Dear  friends,  what 
is  civilization  ?  In  what  does  it  consist  ?  Does  it  consist  in  your  marble 
palaces  ?  In  your  railroads ;  your  electric  lights  ;  your  telephones  and  tele- 
graphs ?  True  civilization  is  to  deal  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly 
with  God.  When  the  Christ  was  here,  he  was  approached  by  a  lawyer  who 
asked  him  what  he  should  do  to  inherit  eternal  life.  "  Love  the  Lord,  thy 
God,  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  "Whatsoever  ye 
would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto  them."  This  is  the 
law  and  the  prophets ;  these  are  the  two  greatest  commandments.  And  do 
I  say  too  much,  when  I  say  that  for  these  commandments  to  permeate  and 
influence  our  lives,  is  true  civilization  ? 

Dear  friends,  take  the  practical  application  of  the  philosophy  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  to-day  and  apply  it  to  all  the  problems  that  are  confronting  us. 
How  long  do  you  suppose  it  would  take  us  to  solve  them  ?  First  of  all, 
if  the  men  of  this  nation  would  do  as  they  would  like  to  be  done  by,  we 
wouldn't  have  to  stand  here  pleading  with  you  year  after  year,  now  forty 
years,  asking  you,  under  a  government  which  derives  its  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed,  to  clothe  us  with  the  ballot.  If  you  loved  us  as 
you  love  yourselves,  you  would  make  us  equal  with  you  in  all  the  privileges  and 
blessings  of  this  great  nation — I  will  not  say  great  republic,  because  it  is  not 
a  republic ;  the  world  has  never  yet  known  a  republic.  A  republic  is  a  gov- 
ernment of  the  people  where  the  power  rests  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and 
one-half  of  the  people  of  this  Government  have  no  power  in  it  except  a 
surreptitious,  or  indirect,  or  irresponsible  power,  which  is  always  detrimental 
to  those  who  exercise  it,  and  detrimental  to  those  upon  whom  it  is  exercised. 

If  we  loved  our  neighbors  as  ourselves,  and  did  as  we  would  others  should 
do  unto  us,  how  quickly  would  these  knotty  problems  of  labor  and  capital 
be  solved  !     It  doesn't  mean  that  one  class  shall  love  another  class  to  the 


C  lose  of  the  Council.  431 

exclusion  of  itself.  You  may  love  yourself  as  much  as  you  like,  provided 
you  will  let  that  love  which  you  have  for  yourself,  be  the  measure  of  your 
love  for  me,  and  you  will  never  wrong  me  and  I  shall  never  wrong  you,  if 
we  take  that  measure.  I  am  glad  to  see  that  the  secular  press  in  many  in- 
stances is  coming  to  the  conviction,  to  use  an  old  proverb,  that  "honesty 
is  the  best  policy,"  and  that  it  pays  to  do  right. 

We  think  we  have  a  Government  based  on  public  opinion.  We  have 
not.  The  women  of  the  nation  have  little  or  no  voice ;  not  only  that,  but 
the  public  opinion  of  the  men  does  not  govern  in  our  great  cities.  At  least 
if  it  does,  we  have  some  pretty  bad  men  to  govern  us.  We  know  to-day 
that  our  republican  institutions  are  a  failure  in  our  great  cities,  and  that  we 
are  governed  not  by  public  sentiment,  but  by  an  armed  police.  One  of  the 
greatest  thinkers  of  this  continent  asks:  "  What  is  to  be  the  future  of  this 
nation,  when  we  become  New  York  all  over?" 

We  talk  about  the  voice  of  the  people  being  the  voice  of  God.  If  that  be 
true  the  voice  of  God  has  never  yet  been  heard  in  human  government  while 
one-half  the  race  is  silent.  Now,  gentlemen  might  ask  me  what  I  promise 
them  will  be  gained  by  giving  women  the  power  of  the  ballot.  I  have  not 
said  that  I  believe  woman  will  solve  this  question  affirmatively.  I  have  said, 
though,  gentlemen,  that  I  do  not  believe  you  can  do  it  without  her  aid. 
But  my  faith  has  grown  so  strong  in  the  last  ten  days  that  I  shall  say  that  I 
believe  woman  will  solve  it;  you,  with  her  aid,  will  solve  it  affirmatively. 

Miss  Anthony.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  President  of  the  National 
Woman  Suffrage  Association,  and,  by  virtue  of  that  office,  President  of  this 
Council,  will  now  address  you. 

Mrs.  Stanton.  In  closing  this  International  Council  of  Women  I  have 
been  chosen  to  bring  in  the  unanimous  verdict,  "A  complete  success  from 
every  point  of  view." 

The  immense  numbers  in  attendance  at  every  session  prove  the  interest 
the  public  feel  in  what  the  women  of  the  nation  have  to  say.  The  harmony 
and  order  of  the  proceedings,  considering  the  varied  interests  represented, 
and  the  widely-different  opinions  of  the  Convention,  prove  that  women  are 
ready  for  combined  action.  The  discussions,  covering  a  wide  range  of  sub- 
jects, showing  much  thought  and  research,  have  been  highly  creditable  to 
our  speakers.  The  large  majority  of  the  papers  have  been  worthy  the  occa- 
sion, delivered  in  a  round,  full  voice,  and  heard  in  every  part  of  the  house. 
The  moral  tone  of  the  speeches  has  been  unexceptionally  of  a  high  order. 

The  paper  read  last  night  by  Helen  Gardener  was  an  unanswerable  argu- 
ment to  the  twaddle  of  the  scientists  on  woman's  brain.  The  facts  she  gave 
us  were  so  encouraging  that  I  started  life  again  this  morning,  with  renewed 
confidence  that  my  brain  might  hold  out  a  few  years  longer.  I  have  always 
said  I  did  not  wish  to  go  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  disfranchised,  and 
have  looked  forward  with  pleasure  to  introducing  myself  to  St.  Peter  at  the 


432  International  Council  of  Women. 

gate  as  an  American  citizen,  and  Helen  has  made  that  hope  seem  practical. 
The  reports  given  of  the  work  done  by  women  in  the  fifty-three*  different  or- 
ganizations represented  here  have  filled  us  all  with  surprise  and  admiration, 
and  the  more,  when  we  remember  that  women  have  had  to  force  their  way  to- 
every  vantage-ground  they  hold.  Though  ever  willing  to  do  the  drudgery 
of  the  world  in  all  philanthropic  reforms  without  praise  or  pay,  yet,  thus  far, 
they  have  literally  begged  for  the  privilege  of  helping  to  mitigate  the  miseries- 
of  mankind. 

This  beautiful  auditorium,  decorated  with  the  flags  of  each  of  our  States 
and  the  various  nationalities,  is  a  fitting  frame  for  the  historic  picture  of  this 
International  Council.  Happy  are  those  who  have  lived  to  see  this  day, 
when  so  many  different  countries  are  represented  on  one  platform.  A  letter 
received  from  a  Nihilist  this  rrorning  adds  Russia  to  the  list.  This  letter  is- 
from  Prince  Kropotkin,  who  suffered  five  years'  imprisonment  under  the 
French  Republic  for  advocating  the  cause  of  the  people.  The  bravery  and 
endurance  of  young  Russian  women  in  the  dungeons  of  St.  Petersburg  and 
the  mines  of  Siberia,  in  their  struggles  for  national  liberty,  prove  triumph- 
antly that  woman  knows  how  to  die  for  a  principle.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  both  Stepniak  and  Prince  Kropotkin  in  London,  and  in  a  long  in- 
terview of  three  hours  they  explained  to  me  fully  what  Nihilism  means  in 
Russia.  I  think  those  who  have  read  Judge  Kennan's  articles  in  the 
Century  will  readily  accord  all  praise  and  honor  to  the  noble  Russian 
women  who  have  so  courageously  identified  themselves  in  the  struggle  for 
freedom,  and  expiated  their  love  of  liberty  on  the  scaffold. 

Letters  from  so  many  countries  in  the  Old  World  show  that  this  Interna- 
tional Council  has  awakened  new  hopes  in  all  for  united  efforts  in  the  cause 
of  the  common  people  in  every  nation  on  the  globe.  The  contrast  between 
the  first  convention  of  women  ever  held  and  this,  marks  the  growth  of  forty 
years,  and  if  the  measure  of  our  duties  is  in  proportion  to  the  vantage- 
ground  we  hold,  our  demands  for  human  freedom  must  be  far  broader  than 
they  were  forty  years  ago.  For  the  first  convention  all  the  preparations 
were  made  in  a  day.  A  notice  as  long  as  your  finger  was  printed  in  the 
county  paper  calling  the  meeting  for  the  next  week.  This  and  a  few  private 
letters  were  all  the  notices  given.  But  the  Methodist  church  in  which  it 
was  held,  was  crowded,  and  the  proceedings  were  abundantly  ridiculed  by 
the  press  from  Maine  to  Louisiana.  I  shall  never  forget  my  astonashment  at 
having  the  dream  of  my  young  life  so  severely  ridiculed.  The  demand  we 
made  was  so  rational,  the  justice  so  apparent,  that  I  thought  the  simple  state- 
ment would  convince  every  one. 

The  Constitution,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  spirit  of  English 
law  as  set  forth  by  Blackstone,  the  genius  of  republican  institutions,  all 
seemed  to  make  the  position  we  had  taken  in  the  Convention  so  unassailable, 


*  See  pages  49  and  50.    The  New  England  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  Delegate,  Mrs. 
Ednah  D.  Cheney,  was,  by  mistake,  omitted  from  this  list. 


Close  of  the  Council.  433 

that  we  were  wholly  unprepared  for  opposition,  much  less  ridicule.  We  felt 
as  you  can  imagine  a  body  of  soldiers  in  a  strong  fortress  would  feel  if, 
knowing  themselves,  with  their  high  walls,  cannon  mounted,  every  approach 
impregnable,  every  outpost  guarded,  safe  beyond  all  peradventure  they  should 
suddenly  find  themselves  undermined  and  the  earth  beneath  their  feet  giving 
way.  Our  principles  all  swept  away  by  the  breath  of  ridicule,  there  was 
nothing  to  stand  on.  Our  best  friends  laughed  at  us  and  were  ashamed  that 
any  of  their  kin  should  be  identified  with  such  a  movement. 

Now  all  is  changed.  Busy  preparations  for  the  International  Council  have 
been  going  on  for  a  year.  Hundreds  of  letters  in  the  way  of  consultation  and 
invitations  written  ;  hundreds  of  documents  published  and  scattered  ;  thou- 
sands of  dollars  raised  for  expenses,  and  the  most  beautiful  edifice  in  our  Na- 
tional Capital  secured  for  the  Council.  Now,  friends  press  us  warmly  by  the 
hand  and  shower  blessings  on  our  heads,  and  the  tone  of  the  press  in  gene- 
ral is  complimentary,  and  thus  it  ever  is.  The  highest  truth  uttered  to-day, 
though  startling  to  some  ears,  will  be  verified  in  the  near  future.  We  can  not 
overestimate  the  moral  effect  this  Council  must  surely  have  on  women  them- 
selves, on  the  nation  at  large  and  on  the  world.  It  must  have  a  marked 
influence  in  giving  us  all  broader  charity  for  the  differences  of  customs  and 
opinions,  arousing  good  feeling,  and  helping  forward  the  day  when  all  inter- 
national difficulties  will  be  settled  by  arbitration. 

The  Queen  of  England  last  year  held  her  jubilee,  when  the  nation 
poured  out  its  wealth  and  laid  most  costly  presents  at  her  feet,  when  all 
her  subjects  in  every  land,  and  the  isles  of  the  sea,  were  taxed  to  do  her 
honor.  This  year  the  queens  of  America  have  assembled  by  the  hundreds 
to  hold  their  jubilee,  to  lay  their  richest  gifts  of  intellect,  of  moral  and 
spiritual  power  on  the  altar  of  their  country.  From  all  ranks  of  life,  from 
the  halls  of  science  and  the  workshop,  from  the  trades  and  professions, 
they  have  come,  one  after  another,  to  tell  in  glowing  words  what  they  have 
done  in  deeds  of  charity,  in  philanthropic  enterprises,  in  the  industries, 
in  education,  in  literature  and  art,  to  glorify  our  great  republic.  No  one 
could  listen  to  the  grand  women  who  have  voiced  this  progress  of  the 
last  half-century,  without  a  feeling  of  pride  in  the  nation  that  has  made 
such  women  possible. 

And  now,  in  this  year  of  our  jubilee,  what  do  we  ask  in  turn,  of  our 
country?  [That  all  artificial  barriers  that  in  any  way  cripple  our  freedom, 
be  thrown  down,  and  that  all  the  opportunities  for  self-development  that 
the  country  affords  be  secured  to  us  ;  unjust  laws  repealed,  the  most  vener- 
able colleges  thrown  open,  an  equal  code  of  morals  for  men  and  women, 
and  Jurisdiction  in  our  courts  over  all  that  class  of  crime  which  belongs  spe- 
cifically to  women.  We  ask  an  equal  right  to  regulate  everything  in  the 
outside  world  that  affects  the  moral  status  of  our  children  ;  the  atmosphere 
of  our  homes,  schools,  and  the  streets  of  jaur  cities  ;  the  science  and  philos- 
ophy taught  in  our  colleges,  the  theology  in  our  churches  ;  the  true  princi- 


434  International  Council  of  Women. 

pies  of  political  economy  in  government.  We  do  not  wish  to  have  our  sons 
taught  any  theories  in  college  life  that  will  lower  their  respect  for  women. 
We  do  not  wish  to  have  them  taught  in  the  church  that  woman  was  an  after- 
thought in  the  creation  ;  that  marriage  for  her  is  a  condition  of  slavery, 
maternity  a  curse,  and  her  proper  position,  ever  one  of  subordination.  All 
these  basic  ideas  affect  the  character  of  our  children  and  their  estimate  of 
woman  j  hence  we  should  have  a  voice  in  the  system  of  education,  of  relig- 
ion, of  government. 7 

For  the  men  of  the  nation  we  ask  the  intelligent,  conscientious  counsel  of 
wise  women.  If  you  would  have  men  faithful  in  their  duties  to  the  State, 
cultivate  patriotism  in  women.  If  you  would  broaden  the  outlook  of  man, 
making  country  ever  first  in  his  estimation,  do  not  center  woman's  thought 
on  personal  and  family  aggrandizement,  for  where  her  thoughts  are  centered, 
his  best  efforts  will  be  also.  It  needs  but  little  philosophy  to  see  that  in 
proportion  as  the  circle  of  woman's  sympathy  extends  itself  beyond  the 
family  to  her  neighborhood,  her  State,  her  country,  and  the  world,  will  she 
inspire  the  men  of  her  family  with  broader  views  as  to  the  scope  of  govern- 
ment, as  to  all  national  and  international  questions.  To  this  end  we  ask  you 
to  celebrate  our  jubilee  by  placing  on  woman's  brow  the  crown  of  American 
citizenship,  and  in  her  hand  the  ballot,  that  great  scepter  of  power  for  self- 
defense  and  protection. 

I  would  press  on  your  consideration,  my  sisters,  to-night,  not  your  right, 
but  your  duty  to  vote — to  do  your  part  in  the  great  work  of  government. 
Suppose,  by  the  death  of  a  husband,  a  woman  were  suddenly  left  with  a 
magnificent  estate  and  a  large  family  of  children.  What  should  we  say  of 
such  a  woman  should  she  leave  her  children  untrained  and  uneducated,  to 
play  on  the  highway,  and  her  estate  to  fall  into  ruin,  left  wholly  to  the  man- 
agement of  her  elder  sons,  who  robbed  the  younger  children  of  their  birth- 
right, wasting  their  share  of  the  income  in  riotous  living?  The  more  grace- 
ful and  refined  such  a  woman,  the  more  intelligent  and  gifted,  the  more 
gentle  and  affable,  the  more  artistic  in  dress  and  pose,  the  more  utterly  con- 
temptible would  she  seem  to  us  in  her  apathy  and  indifference  to  all  the  most 
sacred  duties  of  life. 

Our  fathers  and  mothers  have  left  us  a  magnificent  inheritance  bought 
with  a  great  price.  Together  they  shared  the  dangers  of  a  stormy  sea  in 
the  little  Mayflower,  the  dreary  landing  on  Plymouth  Rock,  the  rigors  of  a 
New  England  winter,  and  the  privations  of  a  seven  years'  war.  In  untold 
sufferings  and  self-denial  they  laid  the  corner-stones  of  this  republic  in  jus- 
tice and  equality;  that  here  the  lovers  of  liberty,  escaping  from  the  tyranny 
of  kingcraft  and  priestcraft  in  the  Old  World,  might  enjoy  civil  and  religious 
freedom  forever. 

Everything  was  favorable  for  the  grand  experiment.  Three  thousand  miles 
of  ocean  between  us  and  the  civilizations  of  the  Old  World,  without  a 


si  v: 

Close  of  the  Council.      -  435 

steamer  or  telegraph  for  two  centuries,  the  savage  and  the  wilderness  our 
only  obstacles,  Man  has  done  his  material  work  grandly  and  well ;  he  has 
ploughed  up  our  prairies,  bridged  our  rivers  and  chasms,  with  his  railroads 
linked  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  together,  made  our  flag  respected  in  every 
harbor,  and  our  internal  commerce  the  wonder  of  the  world.  And  now  the 
time  has  fully  come  for  woman  to  look  after  her  inheritance,  and  share  the 
responsibility  of  securing  justice  and  equality  to  every  citizen  under  our  flag, 
lest  the  growing  elements  of  discontent  shall,  in  the  near  future,  make  it  im- 
possible. 

Landing  in  New  York  two  weeks  ago,  I  saw  four  hundred  steerage  passen- 
gers leave  the  vessel.  Dull-eyed,  heavy-visaged,  stooping  with  huge  burdens 
and  the  oppressions  they  endured  in  the  Old  World,  they  stood  in  painful 
contrast  with  the  group  of  brilliant  women  on  their  way  to  the  International 
Council  to  be  held  here  in  Washington.  I  thought,  as  this  long  line  passed 
by,  of  the  speedy  transformation  the  genial  influences  of  equality  would 
effect  in  the  appearance  of  these  men,  of  the  new  dignity  they  would  acquire 
with  a  voice  in  the  laws  under  which  they  live,  and  I  rejoiced  for  them  ;  but 
bitter  reflections  filled  my  mind  when  I  thought  these  men  are  the  future 
rulers  of  our  daughters;  these  will  interpret  the  civil  and  criminal  codes  by 
which  they  will  be  governed ;  these  will  be  our  future  judges  and  jurors  to 
try  young  girls  in  our  courts  for  the  crime  of  infanticide,  for  trial  by  a  jury 
of  her  peers  has  never  yet  in  the  history  of  the  world  been  vouchsafed  to 
women,  with  two  rare  exceptions,  Wyoming  and  Washington  Territories. 
Here  is  a  right  so  ancient  that  it  is  difficult  to  trace  its  origin  in  history — 
a  right  so  sacred  that  the  humblest  criminal  may  choose  his  juror.  But, 
alas  for  the  daughters  of  the  people,  their  judges,  advocates,  jurors,  must  be 
men,  and  for  them  there  is  no  appeal.  But  this  is  only  one  wrong  among 
many  inevitable  to  a  disfranchised  class.  It  is  impossible  for  you,  gentle- 
men, to  appreciate  the  humiliations  women  suffer  at  every  turn. 

My  joy  in  reaching  my  native  land  and  meeting  dear  friends  and  family 
once  more,  was  shadowed  by  that  vision  on  the  wharf  and  by  the  knowledge 
that  by  thousands  still  they  come,  and  from  lands  where  woman,  as  a  mere 
beast  of  burden,  is  infinitely  more  degraded  than  by  any  possibility  she  can 
be  here.  Do  you  wonder,  in  view  of  what  the  character  of  our  future  law- 
makers may  be,  that  we  are  filled  with  apprehensions  of  coming  evil,  and 
that  we  feel  that  there  is  no  time  to  be  lost  if  our  Saxon  fathers  ever  propose 
to  throw  around  us  the  protecting  power  of  law  and  Constitution  ?  If  native- 
born  American  men  will  not  do  justice  to  their  own  mothers,  wives,  and  sis- 
ters, what  have  we  to  hope  in  the  future  of  foreign  rulers,  with  the  low  ideas 
of  woman  into  which  they  are  educated  ?  The  next  generation  of  women 
will  not  argue  with  their  rulers  as  patiently  as  we  have  done,  and  to  so  little 
purpose  for  half  a  century.  You  have  now  the  power,  Men  of  the  Republic, 
to  settle  this  question  by  moral  influences,  by  wise  legislation.     But  if  you 


436  International  Council  of  Women. 

can  not  be  aroused  to  its  serious  consideration,  like  every  other  step  in  prog- 
ress, it  will  eventually  be  settled  by  violence.  The  wild  enthusiasm  of 
woman  can  be  used  for  evil  as  well  as  for  good.  To-day  you  have  the  power 
to  guide  and  direct  it  into  channels  of  true  patriotism,  but  in  future,  with 
all  the  elements  of  discontent  now  gathering  from  foreign  lands,  you  may 
have  the  scenes  of  the  French  Commune  repeated  in  our  land.  In  all  the 
struggles  for  liberty  in  the  past  women  have  ever  taken  an  active  part,  and  it 
is  fair  to  suppose  that  they  will  do  the  same  in  the  future.  Awake  to  their 
own  wrongs,  as  they  never  have  been  before,  and  exasperated  with  a  sense 
of  the  prolonged  oppressions  of  their  sex,  it  requires  no  prophet  to  foretell 
the  revolutions  ahead,  when  women  strike  hands  with  Nihilists,  Socialists, 
Communists,  and  Anarchists,  in  defense  of  the  most  enlarged  liberties  of  the 
people. 

i^nd  now  let  me  ask  you,  my  sisters,  in  all  seriousness,  are  you  satisfied 
with  the  role  you  have  played  during  the  last  century  of  our  national  life? 
Go  into  the  by-ways  of  our  great  cities  and  look  at  the  swarming  multitudes 
of  children  growing  up  in  ignorance  and  poverty ;  look  at  the  vice  and  mis- 
ery of  their  surroundings,  and  the  disgusting  filth  of  the  streets  and  houses 
where  they  dwell.  Go  into  our  jails  and  prisons,  and  see  the  cruelties  in- 
flicted on  humanity  there,  all,  places  of  punishment,  rather  than  reformation  ; 
go  into  our  factories  and  see  the  worn  and  weary  men,  women  and  children, 
every  nerve  at  the  highest  tension  to  keep  time  with  machinery  driven  by 
steam ;  go  into  our  poor-houses,  asylums  for  the  deaf,  the  dumb,  the  blind, 
the  lunatic,  the  idiot ;  go  into  our  houses  of  prostitution,  and  consider  well  the 
causes  of  all  these  harrowing  social  problems,  and  as  you  weep  and  pray  over 
the  sins  and  sufferings  of  the  multitude,  remember  that  all  this  can  and  must 
be  changed,  and  that  you  have  the  same  responsibility  in  accomplishing  this 
change  as  the  man  by  your  side.  This  branch  of  government,  regulating 
the  morals  of  the  people,  belongs  specifically  to  woman  ;  and  the  first  step  to 
this  end,  is  to  make  you  believe  that  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  all  the 
people  of  a  nation  are  possible.  Education  and  equal  legislation  can  change 
all  this  and  make  our  earth  a  paradise.  We  must  have  no  more  sermons 
from  the  text  "The  poor  ye  have  always  with  you."  I  heard  a  sermon 
preached  from  this  text  once,  in  which  the  preacher  spoke  of  the  extremes  of 
poverty  and  wealth  as  a  most  beneficent  arrangement  of  Providence,  calling 
out  the  virtues  of  charity  on  the  one  sida  and  of  gratitude  on  the  other. 

If  the  women  of  this  nation  will  henceforth  give  all  the  thought,  the  time, 
the  force,  the  enthusiasm,  to  the  practical  work  of  this  life,  that  they  hav 
heretofore  expended  in  speculations  and  preparations  for  the  future,  we  might 
bring  sunshine  into  every  home,  open  the  prison  doors,  transfer  all  the 
heavy  burdens  from  the  shoulders  of  men  to  tireless  machinery,  and  gradu- 
ally lessen  the  roll-call  of  the  unfortunates.  We  have  thus  far  had  no  end 
of   trouble  and  anxiety  about  saving  the  souls  of  the  human  family,  and 


Close  of  the  Council.  437 

heart-rending  speculations  as  to  the  next  sphere  of  action.  Let  us  concen- 
trate our  thoughts  henceforth  on  the  best  interests  of  the  masses  here.  Let 
us  look  after  their  bodies,  teach  them  the  laws  of  health  and  how  to  live.  The 
best  possible  preparation  for  the  next  form  of  existence  is  to  fulfill  our  duties 
here.  I  like  Matthew  Arnold's  definition  of  religion.  He  says,  "  Religion 
is  science  touched  with  emotion."  I  want  women  to  feel  that  it  is  their 
religious  duty  to  take  part  in  government,  the  most  exalted  of  all  sciences  ; 
and  yet  women  often  talk  as  if  it  would  compromise  their  dignity  and 
refinement  to  vote. 

What  are  the  great  questions  involved  in  government?  Our  relations 
with  foreign  countries,  taxes,  tariffs,  finance,  religion,  education  ;  all  ques- 
tions of  social  life,  marriage,  divorce,  the  rights  of  children,  the  sanitary 
conditions  of  our  homes,  schools,  and  cities.  Now  is  it  possible  that  a 
woman  with  the  ordinary  number  of  convolutions  in  her  brain,  and  the 
usual  amount  of  gray  matter,  can  be  unwilling  to  inform  herself  and  express 
her  opinion  at  the  polls  on  such  questions?  It  is  this  class  of  unthinking, 
conscienceless,  women  who  go  into  fashionable  society  with  low-necked 
dresses  and  bare  arms,  their  persons  so  exposed  as  to  make  every  modest 
woman  blush. 

I  remember  once  we  held  a  convention  in  Newport  in  the  fashionable  sea- 
son. In  the  parlor,  one  morning,  when  it  was  filled  with  ladies,  one  of 
them  said  to  me,  "We  attended  your  convention  last  night."  I  said  :  "I 
am  very  happy  to  hear  it.  How  did  you  enjoy  it?"  "  Oh,"  said  another, 
"we  enjoyed  it  very  much;  but  we  rather  shrink  from  the  idea  of  a  woman 
being  exposed  on  a  public  platform."  "  Why,"  I  said,  "  my  dear  lady,  I 
came  in  here  rather  late  last  night,  and,  as  I  enjoy  the  harmony  of  motion 
and  music,  I  sat  here  a  little  while  and  looked  at  you  all  dance.  I  saw  you, 
with  your  low  necks  and  bare  arms,  whirling  around  in  the  arms  of  gentle- 
men to  whom  you  had  just  been  introduced,  and  I  thought  you  were  shame- 
fully exposed.  I  should  have  shrunk  from  having  a  woman  dressed  as  you 
were  on  the  platform.  You  were  much  more  exposed  than  we  were."  "Oh, 
yes,"  said  she,  "but  the  papers  are  full  about  you,  telling  everything  you  do 
and  say."  "  Well,"  said  I,  "I  saw  you  all  this  morning  reading  the  pa- 
pers describing  your  dresses,  your  grace  and  beauty  last  night,  and  I  pre- 
sume if  there  was  one  of  you  who  was  not  mentioned  you  were  very  much 
disappointed.  The  only  difference  is,  the  papers  tell  what  we  say  upon  great 
questions;  they  describe  how  you  look.  I  leave  it  for  you  to  decide  which 
is  the  more  dignified.  Where,  I  ask  you,  is  a  woman  most  exposed,  walk- 
ing to  the  polls  with  her  husband  in  her  street-dress,  or  whirling  in  the  arms 
of  some  other  man  in  full  ball-room  costume?  "  I  fear,  under  the  domina- 
tion of  fashion  and  superstition,  we  have  much  rubbish  to  clear  away  before 
we  can  get  at  the  true  woman. 

We  shall  hope  much  from  the  debates  we  have  heard  in  this  grand  Council 


438       #  International  Council  of  Women. 

for  the  future  womanhood  of  our  nation.  When  I  think  of  the  magnificent 
experiment  in  government  it  is  our  privilege  to  try,  and  all  the  great  prob- 
lems that  await  our  solution,  I  feel  that  we  need  the  united  wisdom  of  every 
man  and  woman  to  insure  our  success.  Galton,  in  his  great  work  on  "  He- 
redity," says  "  the  brain  of  man  is  already  overweighted  with  the  compli- 
cated problems  of  civilization,  and  the  race  must  be  lifted  up  two  or  three 
degrees  to  meet  them."  In  every  country  we  see  the  wisest  statesmen  at  their 
wits'  end  vainly  trying  to  meet  the  puzzling  questions  of  the  hour  :  In  Russia, 
it  is  Nihilism;  in  Germany,  Socialism;  in  France,  Communism;  in  England, 
Home  Rule  for  Ireland  and  the  Disestablishment  of  the  Church,  and  in 
America,  Land,  Labor,  Taxes,  Tariffs,  Temperance,  and  Woman  Suffrage. 
Where  shall  we  look  for  the  new  power  by  which  the  race  can  be  lifted  up 
and  the  human  mind  made  capable  of  coping  with  the  daily-increasing  com- 
plications of  this  new  civilization  ?  Where  shall  we  look  but  to  the  educa- 
tion, elevation,  and  enfranchisement  of  woman?  When  she  stands  on  an 
even  platform  with  man,  as  an  equal  factor  in  government,  there  will  be  a 
flow  and  interflow  of  brain  forces  that  will  kindle  all  their  latent  powers,  vital- 
ize their  best  thoughts,  and  give  strength  and  dignity  to  their  combined  action 
in  every  department  of  life. 

On  behalf  of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  under  whose  aus- 
pices this  International  Council  has  been  held,  allow  me,  before  adjourning 
the  Council,  to  thank  the  large  audiences  that  have  assembled  here  for 
eight  consecutive  days.  Your  presence  has  been  very  encouraging,  and  given 
us  renewed  inspiration  in  our  work  for  the  future.  I  trust,  in  turn,  that  all 
that  has  been  said  here  has  awakened  your  minds  to  the  vital  importance  of 
the  subjects  that  have  been  under  consideration.  While  thanking  our  foreign 
delegates  for  the  long  voyage  they  have  taken  in  response  to  our  invitation, 
we  can  not  find  words  to  express  the  pleasure  we  feel  in  having  them  with  us, 
nor  the  sorrow  we  feel  in  parting.  This  has  given  us  an  opportunity,  too,  of 
meeting  many  of  our  own  countrywomen  engaged  in  the  various  reforms  and 
industries  ;  and  of  making  many  valuable  acquaintances  which  I  am  sure  we 
all  appreciate. 

After  this  refreshing  interchange  of  thought  in  which  we  have  thrilled  the 
hearts  of  each  other,  I  trust  we  shall  go  forth  with  renewed  consecration  in 
our  labors  for  the  best  interests  of  humanity,  leaving  the  world  better  than 
we  found  it. 

The  Council  is  now  adjourned. 


LETTERS. 


The  following  is  the  letter  of  the  Russian  Nihilist,  Prince 

Kropotkin,  to  which  Mrs.  Stanton  referred : 

Roxborough  Road,  Harrow  on  the  Hill, 

London,  England,  March  12,  1888. 

Women  of  America  :  It  is  with  profound  sympathy  that  your  labors  have  been 
followed  by  my  compatriots,  the  women  of  Russia.  At  the  two  extremities  of  the 
civilized  world  the  problem  that  presents  itself  is  one  and  the  same,  to  abolish  the 
privileges  that  have  been  created  for  the  benefit  of  one-half  of  humanity  to  the 
detriment  of  the  other  half. 

Under  a  despotic  government,  which  considers  the  ignorance  of  its  subjects  as 
the  best  guarantee  of  its  own  supremacy  and  hastens  to  crush  freedom  of  thought 
under  whatever  form  it  shows  itself,  the  Russian  women  have,  nevertheless,  suc- 
ceeded by  their  persevering  efforts  in  constructing  a  whole  vast  system  of  instruc- 
tion for  their  sex.  For  the  institutes  of  old  times  (a  sort  of  convents)  they  have 
substituted  430  lyceums,  which  at  this  moment  contain  91,000  pupils.  Under  the 
title  of  lectures  on  the  art  of  teaching,  they  have  created  for  themselves  against  the 
wishes  of  the  government,  which  found  itself  forced  to  yield,  a  course  of  secondary 
education,  preparatory  to  the  studies  of  the  universities.  And  under  the  modest 
title  of  lectures  for  the  "  Higher  Education  of  Women"  they  have  created  four 
universities,  which  were  giving  instruction  absolutely  equal  to  that  of  the  best  Ger- 
man and  French  universities  to  eighteen  hundred  students,  when  the  government 
ordered  their  abolition. 

They  have  done  more.  By  taking  an  active  and  devoted  part  in  the  great  move- 
ment for  the  emancipation  of  the  people  which  has  been  taking  place  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years  in  Russia,  they  have  conquered  their  rights  as  citizens.  It  was  by 
working  to  liberate  the  Russian  people  that  they  have  prepared  the  way  for  their 
own  liberation.  They  have  shared  all  the  hardships  of  the  struggle,  all  the  pain  of 
the  persecuted.  In  prison,  in  exile,  in  the  mines,  dragging  their  chains  beside  their 
brothers,  they  have  known  how  to  inspire  them  with  their  nerve  courage,  and  they 
have  pleaded  their  rights  to  be  recognized  as  citizens  by  mounting  the  scaffold,  like 
Sophia  Perovskaya,  with  calm  front  and  lofty  bearing,  uniting  in  her  last  words  the 
names  of  her  beloved  mother  and  the  Russian  peasant  for  whose  liberty  she  had 
lived.  If  it  were  not  for  the  despotic  government,  which  at  this  moment  is  harass- 
ing Russia  by  its  furious  pursuit  of  the  very  faintest  mark  of  sympathy  toward 
every  flight  of  emancipating  thought,  Russian  women  would  surely  be  among  you 
to-day  taking  part  in  your  labors  and  exchanging  with  you  their  ideas,  their  experi- 
ence, their  confidence  for  the  future. 

But  it  is  not  only  as  a  Russian,  a  witness  of  the  noble  struggle  of  the  women  of 
Russia  for  liberty,  that  I  permit  myself  to  address  you.  Women  of  America,  in 
your  country,  as  in  all  civilized  lands,  you  have  the  supreme  happiness  to  live  at  an 
epoch  which  history  will  certainly  characterize  as  the  epoch  of  the  awakening  of 
the  masses;  the  epoch  of  the  bold  criticism  of  all  the  institutions  bequeathed  to 
us — children  of  the  nineteenth  century — by  the  centuries  of  barbarism  and  of  war; 
the  epoch  where  the  march  of  humanity  toward  Equality  and  Liberty  is  leading  us 
to  Fraternity  ! 


440  International  Council  of  Women. 

Living  for  more  than  ten  years  in  the  very  midst  of  the  European  workmen,  and 
having  the  opportunity  to  see,  to  feel  this  enormous  intellectual  movement  that  is 
now  taking  place  among  the  masses;  seeing  day  by  day  the  birth  of  the  great  ideas 
of  freedom  and  of  fraternity  in  the  bosom  of  those  whom  the  rich  and  powerful 
have  condemned  to  remain  forever  beneath  their  domination  ;  noting  day  by  day 
for  ten  years  the  dawn  of  ideas,  of  rooted  convictions,  and  of  earnest  devotion 
in  the  heart  of  the  workers,  and  drawing  inspiration  myself  from  this  glorious 
awakening,  I  long  to  tell  you  that  at  this  moment  it  is  all  over  with  the  system 
which  condemns  the  masses  of  mankind  to  poverty,  to  overwork,  to  privation  of 
all  those  pleasures  of  knowledge  and  of  art  that  alone  are  capable  of  rendering 
human  life  a  source  of  happiness;  and  all  this  to  obtain  leisure,  wealth,  luxury, 
for  a  mere  handful  among  us.  The  system  is  condemned,  and  I  affirm,  in  full 
knowledge  of  the  surroundings  in  which  my  life  is  framed,  that  the  century 
will  not  end  before  the  toiling  masses  make  a  supreme  effort  to  transform  from 
beginning  to  end  a  state  of  things  which  is  unjust,  degrading,  hurtful  to  human- 
ity, and  a  bar  upon  progress. 

You  will  see  this  magnificent  struggle  of  the  workers  for  their  liberation  taking  a 
more  and  more  important  and  serious  character.  But  on  which  side  will  you  be 
found  ?  "What  position  will  you  take  in  the  strife  ?  Will  you  be  on  the  side  of  the 
written  law  without  asking  yourself  if  this  law  be  not  contrary  to  justice?  Or 
else  will  you  be  with  those  who  struggle  against  the  law — that  miserable  legacy 
of  an  obscure  past — but  for  justice,  for  the  equality  of  all  human  beings  without 
distinction  of  class,  race,  or  sex,  the  only  solid  base  of  true  fraternity  ?  It  is  your 
duty  to  take  a  place  in  the  struggle.  You  can  no  longer  remain  mere  spectators 
if  you  desire  it.  The  strife  forces  itself  upon  your  notice  by  the  gallows  of  Chi- 
cago, the  fusilades  of  Paris,  the  exterminations  of  rebels  in  Ireland.  But  to  take 
a  part  in  the  struggle  you  must  know  its  cause;  you  must  make  clear  to  yourselves 
the  meaning  of  this  contest  which  is  being  carried  on  everywhere  under  the  name 
of  Socialism,  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  star-spangled  banner  of  the  United  States, 
as  beneath  the  shade  of  the  imperial  eagle  of  Russia,  in  the  German  monarchy  as  in 
the  French  republic,  in  the  New  World  as  in  the  Old. 

Under  penalty  of  one  day  discovering  that  you  are  amidst  the  oppressors  acting 
against  the  oppressed,  you  must  find,  for  yourselves,  the  true  signification  of  this 
strife  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  between  workmen  and  capitalists,  between  the 
creators  of  social  wealth  and  those  who  take  possession  of  it.  And  when,  after 
having  gazed  into  the  abyss  of  the  suffering  and  iniquities  of  our  existing  society, 
you  return  home  and  see  there  your  ornaments,  the  luxury  of  your  house,  that  lux- 
ury and  those  ornaments  will  disgust  you,  as  they  disgusted  Sophia  Perovskaya  and 
so  many  others.  You  will  ask  yourself,  "Whence  comes  this  fortune?  My 
father,"  you  will  say,  "  worked."  But  that  girl  who,  with  her  weak  frame  shiver- 
ering  beneath  a  threadbare  gown,  hurries  each  morning  to  the  factory — her  father 
worked  too  !  My  husband  writes:  "The  rich  will  hate  you  for  this.  They  will 
pursue  you  with  foolish  abuse,  with  base  insults."  No  matter  !  They  did  the  same 
to  the  first  abolitionists.  Are  they  not  venerated  to-day?  Women  of  America,  I 
personally  belong  to  that  great  school  of  Socialism — anarchism — which  seeks  to  free 
the  human  being  from  the  yoke  of  authority,  at  the  same  time  as  from  the  yoke  of 
capital.  After  having  been  with  Mrs.  Beecher  Stowe,  with  your  venerable  Presi- 
dent, Mrs.  Cady  Stanton,  in  the  vanguard  of  the  good  cause,  will  you  ever  admit 
the  possibility  of  finding  yourselves  with  the  modern  enslavers,  hunting  to  death 
the  revolted  slaves  of  modern  times  ?    Awav  with  the  idea  ! 


Letters.  441 

During  your  Congress  you  will  discuss  the  political  rights  of  women,  and  you 
will  find  yourself  face  to  face  with  this  question :  Man  or  woman — has  the  poor  the 
same  political  rights  as  the  rich  ?  Girl  or  boy — has  the  poor  the  leisure  for  educa- 
tion, when  from  the  age  of  thirteen  or  fifteen  years  he  or  she  must  exhaust  an 
ill-nursed  body  in  the  mill,  the  mine,  or  the  factory  ?  Stealing  education  in  the 
hours  of  necessary  repose,  can  the  poor  take  the  part  in  the  affairs  of  his  or  her 
nation,  or  city,  that  can  be  taken  by  professional  politicians,  who  enjoy  leisure  be- 
cause they  live  upon  the  produce  of  the  labor  of  others  ?  You  are  about  to  study 
the  judicial  rights  of  women.  You  will  censure  such  an  unjust  law  as  that  which 
permits  the  man  to  seize  upon  the  woman's  fortune.  But  what  judicial  rights  does 
the  woman  enjoy  who  has  nothing  but  the  shawl  upon  her  shoulders,  and  who  all 
her  life  has  toiled  to  produce  the  fortune  and  provide  the  demands  for  the  other,  for 
the  woman  who  never  went  near  a  machine,  never  lifted  a  spade  ? 

You  are  about  to  speak  of  that  loathsome  fact — prostitution.  And  you  will  be 
forced  to  ask  yourselves,  Why  has  bread  been  wanting  for  this  child  who  sells  her- 
self, when  our  markets  are  overflowing  with  corn  ?  Why  has  she,  who  is  led  to 
work,  never  been  able  to  buy  herself  those  dresses  and  ornaments  which  the  idler's 
wife  displays  in  the  street  ?  You  are  about  to  speak  of  the  industrial  condition  of 
women,  of  their  wages  inferior  to  the  wages  of  men.  And  you  will  be  brought  to 
ask  yourselves  why  a  woman  accepts  starvation  wages  at  all.  Is  it  not  because  all 
that  she  requires  to  produce  new  wealth — the  soil,  the  instruments  of  labor,  machin- 
ery— all  that  would  enable  her  merely  to  live,  have  been  appropriated  by  the  minority  ? 
Good  !  But  the  husband  of  that  other  woman  writes  as  much  or  more.  Why  has 
she  to  struggle  against  poverty  in  bringing  up  her  children  ?  And  why,  then,  am  I 
living  in  opulence?  What  are  my  rights  to  this  opulence?  "Is  not  my  wealth 
woven  of  the  poverty  of  my  sisters  ?  "  But  if  this  question  confronts  you,  you  will 
be  forced  to  do  as  Sophia  Perovskaya  did.  Flee  this  luxury;  join  the  ranks  of  the 
workers;  bring  them  your  enlightenment  and  your  energy;  aid  them  in  their  strug- 
gle for  freedom. 

But  I  will  not  even  attempt  to  convert  you  to  my  principles.  Seek  the  truth  for 
yourselves;  judge  for  yourselves  the  divers  schools  of  socialism,  and,  perforce  you 
will  be  brought  to  join  the  ranks  of  militant  socialists.  The  great  mass  of  mankind 
groans  beneath  the  privilege  bequeathed  to  it  by  history.  But  here,  as  elsewhere, 
the  grand  martyr,  the  one  who  suffers  most  from  this  privilege,  the  one  who  bears 
the  heaviest  burden,  is  still,  and  is  always,  the  woman.  Rich  or  poor,  maiden  or 
mother,  it  is  still  the  woman  who  bends  lowest  beneath  the  iniquities  that  weigh 
upon  mankind.  Work  for  her  liberation.  All  our  wishes,  all  our  sympathies  go 
with  you.  But  you  can  obtain  the  complete  liberation  of  women  only  by  working 
for  the  liberation  of  humanity.  Prince  Pierre  Kropotkin. 

March,  1888. 

We  give  a  few  of  the  letters  expressing  sympathy  with  the 
demand  for  equality  of  rights  for  women. 

1  South  Oxford  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  March  2,  1888. 
Dear  Miss  Anthony:  Your  letter  received,  and  I  am  thankful  for  it,  because  it 
allows  me  the  opportunity  of  doing  two  things:  to  send  you  hearty  greeting  for  all 
the  good  you  have  done  and  are  doing,  and  also  to  say  that,  notwithstanding  any- 
thing you  may  have  read  to  the  contrary,  I  am,  and  always  have  been,  in  favor  of 
woman's  suffrage.  I  advocate  in  my  pulpit  as  well  as  in  private  the  trying  of  the 
experiment,  although  I  have  not  as  much  confidence  as  many  of  my  friends  in  its 
29 


442  International  Council  of  Women. 

power  to  eradicate  the  great  evils  of  the  day.     The  Government  of  the  United  States 
ought  either  to  free  women  from  paying  tax  or  else  give  them  the  vote.     Wish  I 
could  accept  your  invitation  to  attend  your  National  Council  and  hear  the  great 
womanly  leaders,  but  I  must  be  elsewhere. 
May  you  always  dwell  in  the  light. 

Yours,  truly,  T.  De  Witt  Talmage. 

Portland,  Oregon,  March  22,  1888. 

My  Dear  Miss  Anthony:  Although  compelled,  at  the  last  moment,  to  forego  the 
long-anticipated  pleasure  of  meeting  the  International  Council  of  Women  in  person, 
I  cheerfully  unpack  my  trunk  and  resume  my  home  duties,  content  to  meet  you  all 
in  spirit,  and  in  that  way  engage  in  the  deliberations  of  the  most  remarkable  assem- 
blage of  my  sex  yet  known  to  history.  My  heart  throbs  with  quiet  happiness,  as, 
from  my  window  looking  out  upon  Mount  Hood,  with  the  ethereal  blue  of  heaven 
bending  to  the  eastward  from  above  and  around  it,  I  think  of  the  many  members 
of  the  Council  to  whom  I  send  greeting. 

From  the  programme  before  me,  I  judge  that  every  other  question  will  be  amply 
considered  by  the  Council  except  the  one  left  to  me,  to  wit,  "  Suffrage  in  the  Terri- 
tories;" therefore  I  wish  to  say  to  your  brilliant  convocation  from  America  and  over 
the  seas,  that  the  women  of  the  Territories  are  moving  steadily  toward  the  goal  of 
liberty  which  the  ballot  alone  can  guarantee  to  any  people. 

In  Washington  Territory,  where  the  suffrage  was  granted  them  by  legislative 
enactment  in  1883,  and  overthrown  by  judicial  interference  in  1887,  the  right  was 
chivalrously  restored  to  them  in  1888  by  legislative  re-enactment  in  the  face  of  the 
bitterest  opposition  ever  yet  encountered  by  equal  suffragists  anywhere. 

In  Idaho  and  Montana,  woman-suffrage  sentiment  is  rapidly  spreading  among  the 
people  as  a  result  of  the  successful  experiment  in  Wyoming  and  Washington  Terri- 
tories. It  has  already  permeated  every  avenue  of  political  thought,  and  that,  too, 
without  provoking  serious  or  organized  opposition  from  any  quarter.  In  Arizona 
and  New  Mexico  the  question  has  thus  far  received  comparatively  little  attention; 
but  quiet  preparations  are  in  progress  for  effective  work  in  those  Territories,  which 
will  be  openly  and  actively  begun,  as  soon  as  the  present  plans  can  be  completed  for 
placing  Idaho  and  Montana  on  an  equal  footing  with  Wyoming  and  Washington. 

Please  say  to  the  Council,  including  all  the  distinguished  women  from  organiza- 
tions not  yet  committed  to  the  idea  of  equal  suffrage,  that  the  men  of  the  Territories, 
as  a  rule,  are  more  generally  imbued  with  the  spirit  and  fact  of  liberty  than  those 
of  older  and  more  settled  governments.  Their  conception  of  woman  and  her  sphere 
has  been  enlarged  by  multiplied  opportunities  to  behold  her  power  as  a  helpmate  for 
man,  which,  in  a  new  country,  is  always  expanding  under  the  most  trying  circum- 
stances. 

The  new  country  has  ever  been  the  cradle  of  liberty,  and  nowhere  is  this  fact  more 
vividly  illustrated  than  in  the  Territories  of  America,  wherein  woman  has  been 
crowned  as  a  sovereign  citizen  and  openly  acknowledged  as  the  peer  of  her  son, 
brother,  husband,  and  father,  to  whose  gallantry,  chivalry,  and  liberty-loving  mag- 
nanimity she  is  proud  to  be  indebted  for  her  present  freedom. 

Yours,  for  universal  liberty,  Abigail  Scott  Duniway. 

New  York,  March  17,  1888. 
My  Dear  Miss  Anthony  :  The  deep  interest  that  I  have  always  felt  in  the  or- 
ganization of  our  country's  progressive  women,  and  which  I  especially  take  in  this 


Letters.  443 

International  Council  and  the  memorable  anniversary  it  celebrates,  made  me  eager 
to  accept  your  invitation  to  contribute  what  I  could  to  the  discussions  of  its  sessions. 

The  place  on  your  programme,  which  I  accepted  with  gratification  and  pride,  I 
now  relinquish  with  an  equal  measure  of  regret,  because  those  same  industrial  oc- 
cupations which  I  hoped  to  have  the  honor  of  discussing  at  your  Wednesday  morning 
session  have  not  left  me  a  moment's  time  to  prepare,  with  credit  to  you  or  to  my- 
self, for  what  would  have  been  so  pleasant  a  duty. 

The  age  in  which  it  is  our  privilege  to  live  has  been  remarkable  for  progress  along 
many  lines,  but  in  nothing  has  there  been  more  notable  advance  than  in  the  popular 
recognition  of  the  rights  of  woman,  and  the  popular  appreciation  of  her  efforts  for 
her  deliverance  from  effete  limitations.  "Woman  is  to-day  a  controlling  factor  in  the 
life  of  every  Christian  people.  The  world  acknowledges,  even  if  it  does  not  em- 
body in  statutes,  her  sovereignty.  It  recognizes  the  possibilities  which  inhere  in 
her  nature,  and  it  is  opening  on  every  side  doors  long  shut  and  barred  against  her. 
She  is  making  herself  felt  in  its  industries.  She  is  the  soul  of  its  philanthropies. 
It  is  her  touch  that  softens  the  asperities  of  prison  administration,  and  her  gentle 
ministrations  lighten  the  pain  and  weariness  of  the  hospital.  It  is  her  earnest  faith 
that  makes  even  the  exile  of  the  mission  field  a  place  of  joy  and  triumph.  In  the 
grand  moral  controversies  of  the  time — involving  temperance,  the  purity  of  the 
individual  and  tbe  home,  the  protection  of  childhood — woman  occupies  a  foremost 
place.  In  literature  and  art  and  in  education,  how  important  is  the  relation  which 
she  holds  to  the  happiness  of  mankind  ! 

But  there  is  much  yet  to  do  in  this  grand  work  of  woman's  protection  against  the 
prejudice  and  rapacity  which  still  harbor  in  little  minds.  Her  industrial  equality  is 
not  yet  fully  established.  Unjust  legal  prohibitions  prevent  the  utmost  assertion  of 
her  ability.  She  is  still  denied  access  to  spheres  of  usefulness  in  which  she  might 
achieve  new  and  grander  triumphs.  But  I  can  not  doubt  but  that  all  this  will  be 
changed  as  the  years  go  on.  Truth  makes  her  way  slowly,  it  may  be,  but  surely, 
because  the  eternities  are  hers.  Agitation,  discussion,  conflict — out  of  these  what- 
ever is  true  and  vital  comes  at  last. 

With  my  excuses  and  regrets,  I  am  sure  you  will  accept  my  heartfelt  and  most 
earnest  wishes  for  the  triumphant  prosperity  of  the  Woman's  Association  and  of  its 
cause  in  every  land.  Promise  of  this  is  indeed  given  by  the  splendid  array  of  names 
on  your  programme  for  the  sessions  of  the  week — names  which  fully  reassure  me, 
in  the  unavoidable  withdrawal  of  my  own,  standing  as  they  do  in  the  light  of  the 
not  unrewarded  work  of  nobly-spent  years. 

Faithfully  yours,  Frank  Leslie. 

Bange,  Maine  et  Loire,  France,  March  5,  1888. 
To  the  International  Council  of  Women — Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  President : 

It  is  certain  that  such  great  meetings  of  women  of  all  lands  working  for  the  eleva- 
tion and  enfranchisement  of  their  sex  can  not  fail  to  have  a  good  result. 

The  progress  made  by  the  movement  for  the  emancipation  of  women  in  America 
and  England  is  an  encouragement  to  us  in  our  struggle  against  the  prejudices  which 
still  surround  us,  and  which  we  find  it  difficult  to  uproot  in  our  old  continent. 

In  France,  the  number  of  women  interested  in  this  question  is  unfortunately 
small,  and  the  number  of  those  who  have  the  courage  of  their  opinions  and  are  not 
afraid  of  compromising  their  interests  by  speaking  openly,  is  still  smaller.     *    *    * 


444  International  Council  of  Women. 

The  active  propagation  of  the  ideas  of  equity  and  justice,  which  will  elevate  woman 
to  her  proper  position  in  the  family  and  society,  striven  for  so  intelligently  and 
valiantly  by  the  dauntless  women  of  the  United  States  and  of  England,  interests 
me  greatly.  The  enfranchisement  of  woman  is  the  chief  aim  of  my  life.  To  all 
those  with  whom  I  have  so  long  lived  in  mind  and  heart,  to  whom  I  am  personally 
unknown,  let  me  send  my  best  wishes  for  the  complete  success  of  their  persevering 
efforts. 

Accept,  madame,  my  most  sincere  regards  and  cordial  sympathy, 

M.    DuPUIS-VlNCENT, 

One  of  the  Organizers  of  the  Society  for  the  Amelioration  of  Woman's  Condition, 
Founded  1869;  One  of  the  Organizers  of  the  French  Union  for  Woman's  Rights; 
Working  Member  of  the  British  and  Continental  Federation;  Member  of  the  In- 
ternational Association  of  the  Friends  of  Young  Women;  Contributing  Member 
of  Manchester  National  Society  for  Women's  Suffrage;  Member  of  the  League  for 
the  Protection  of  Women;  Member  of  the  Federation  of  Women. 

Society  for  the  Amelioration  of  the  Condition 
of  Women  and  the  Claiming  of  their  Rights, 

Office,  Rue  Cardinet  72,  Paris,  March  6,  1888. 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  President  of  the  International  Council  of  Women  at 
Washington : 

Sisters  of  America  :  We  send  you  our  cordial  and  fraternal  greeting.  We 
have  read  with  deep  interest  of  your  project  of  holding  an  International  Council 
of  Women,  the  programme  of  which  includes  the  examination  of  the  laws  and 
institutions  which  govern  the  condition  of  women. 

In  every  nation,  even  the  most  civilized,  there  exist  still  for  women  special  laws 
which  bear  the  imprint  of  semi-civilization.  But  although  held  in  a  state  of  sec- 
ular ignorance,  woman  has  set  herself  to  noble  undertakings,  in  which  she  proves 
herself  possessed  of  faculties  and  aptitudes  equal  to,  if  not  identical  with,  those 
of  the  other  sex. 

Science,  especially  in  the  department  of  anthropology,  daily  throws  new  light 
upon  this  important  question.  Law  alone  remains  almost  unchanged  in  the  midst  of 
all  these  changes  and  advancements.  At  this  present  time  there  are  laws  which 
injure  women  in  the  very  points  on  which  their  originators  intended  to  benefit  them. 
The  female  sex  is  placed  in  law  with  incompetents,  insane,  idiots,  and  criminals. 
Such  laws  are  at  once  a  denial  of  justice  and  a  contradiction  of  the  mission  of 
woman.  They  contain  a  malicious  attack  upon  her  moral  character,  her  dignity, 
and  her  material  interests. 

The  inferiority,  created  and  legalized  by  the  laws  of  so  many  nations,  has  been 
to  women  a  crushing  and  humiliating  yoke,  which  has  blinded  the  moral  perception 
of  man  and  the  intellect  of  woman.  To  enlighten  the  world  on  this  great  question 
which  touches  one-half  of  the  human  race,  this  is  to  dry  up  the  source  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  evils  which  afflict  society;  this  is  to  work  for  moral  elevation; 
this  is  to  reestablish,  on  an  unchanging  foundation,  the  reign  of  justice;  this  is  to 
assure  the  happiness  of  generations  present  and  to  come. 

M.  Griess-Trant,  Maria  Deraismes,  President. 

Louise  David,  Vice-Presidents. 

40  University  Road,  Belfast,  Ireland,  December  3,  1887. 
Dear  Miss  Foster:  It  is  quite  out  of  my  power  to  accept  your  invitation  to  at- 
tend the  great  gathering  of  women  in  Washington  in  March.     I  regret  it  deeply, 


Letters.  445 

for  my  special  sphere  is  certainly  different  from  that  of  any  other  delegate  you  are 
likely  to  have,  and  I  should  have  been  glad  to  have  given  some  account  of  what  we 
Ulster  women  have  done  in  the  last  twenty  years.  We  have,  of  course,  joined  in 
the  general  agitations  of  our  sisters  in  Great  Britain  for  women's  suffrage,  for  the 
reform  of  the  married  women's  property-law,  for  the  repeal  of  the  Contagious  Dis- 
eases Acts,  for  the  founding  of  university  examinations  for  women,  and  eventually 
of  their  admission  to  university  degrees.  But  we  have  some  points  of  interest  spe- 
cial to  ourselves.  You  may  not  be  aware  that  the  very  first  woman  who  ever  spoke 
in  public  on  behalf  of  temperance  in  Europe,  was  an  Ulster  woman,  Mrs.  Carlile, 
the  founder  of  Bands  of  Hope.  From  that  time,  fifty  years  ago,  till  the  present, 
we  have  had  an  exceptionally  high  place  in  the  temperance  cause.  The  Women's 
Temperance  Association  of  Belfast,  founded  by  my  gifted  friend,  Mrs.  Byers,  of  the 
Victoria  College  (who  finds  it  no  hindrance  to  leading  the  van  in  the  cause  of 
women's  education,  to  be  also  a  leader  in  philanthropy),  has  many  branches  through- 
out Ulster,  and  a  membership  of  about  27,000.  Very  nearly  the  same  ladies  are 
engaged,  in  many  different  ways,  in  the  defense  of  young  girls,  and  the  rescue  of 
children  from  moral  danger. 

In  educational  matters  we  have  one  considerable  advantage — in  the  absolute 
equality  of  position  and  rewards  for  boys  and  for  girls,  in  the  intermediate  examina- 
tions in  Ireland.  The  credit  of  getting  this  equality  secured,  while  the  bill  creating 
this  scheme  was  passing  through  Parliament  in  1878,  belongs  in  large  measure  to 
the  Belfast  Ladies'  Institute,  of  which  I  was  then  honorable  secretary.  This  scheme 
has  greatly  enlarged  the  opportunities  for  girls  to  prepare  in  time  for  the  degree 
examinations  of  the  Royal  University  and  others.  Just  now  we  are  specially  grat- 
ified by  our  success  in  obtaining  the  municipal  suffrage  for  women  in  Belfast,  during 
the  late  session  of  Parliament.  Our  North  of  Ireland  Women's  Suffrage  Committee, 
would  very  gladly  have  promoted  a  bill  giving  the  right  to  women  in  all  Irish 
towns,  but  tbere  was  no  means  of  doing  so.  All  that  was  in  our  power  was  to  get 
a  women's  clause  introduced  in  a  local  Belfast  bill.  There  is  no  doubt,  however, 
that  our  possession  of  this  franchise,  will  stimulate  women  in  other  towns  to  care 
more  strongly.  The  first  elections  under  the  new  act  took  place  on  the  25th  of 
November,  and  women  voted  in  large  numbers,  making  temperance  a  very  promi- 
nent object  in  their  choice  of  candidates. 

I  take  for  granted  that  you  are  receiving  similar  information  in  regard  to  Dublin 
from  Mrs.  Haslam,  the  indefatigable  honorable  secretary  of  the  Women's  Suffrage 
Committee  there. 

If  my  health  permitted  I  would  willingly  give  you  a  more  detailed  account  of  our 
work.  I  do  think  it  has  been  rather  remarkably  successful.  A  well-known  Scotch 
M.  P.,  who  is  an  opponent  of  women's  suffrage,  and  many  other  things  that  I  care 
for,  said  to  me,  after  visiting  through  the  eastern  counties  of  Ulster,  "  You  have 
been  extraordinarily  successful  in  inculcating  suffrage  doctrines!  One  meets  edu- 
cated men  and  women  everywhere  who  hold  them;  but  this  is  the  first  time  in  my 
life  that  I  have  been  '  heckled '  on  the  subject  by  farmers,  and  artisans,  and  day- 
laborers!" 

I  trust  you  will  have  a  very  good  meeting;  and  I  am  sure,  if  I  were  well  enough 
to  call  our  committee  together,  that  they  would  authorize  me  to  send  you  their  good 
wishes  as  well  as  my  own.     Yours  truly,  Isabella  M.  S.  Tod. 

Paris,  March  15. 
Dear  Miss  Anthony:  Much  interest  is  taken  here  in  the  reform  circles,  in  your 


446  International  Council  of  Women. 

great  Council.  Let  me  give  you  one  example.  M.  Guyot,  one  of  the  leading  repub- 
lican deputies,  wrote  me  a  few  days  ago  asking  for  documents  concerning  your 
Council.  I  sent  him  what  I  had,  and  night  before  last  he  delivered  a  very  interest- 
ing lecture  on  the  woman  question,  in  which  the  United  States  were  highly 
praised. 

There  is  no  great  progress  to  be  reported  from  this  country  in  this  matter  of 
emancipation  of  women.  Public  opinion,  however,  is  being  educated  by  such 
lectures  as  these  by  M.  Guyot,  and  nobody  can  tell  what  the  result  may  be. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  the  French  have  a  way  of  doing  things  "with  a 
rush,"  you  can  not  say  what  may  not  happen.  Universal  male  suffrage  was 
decreed  in  a  night,  and,  it  may  be,  in  a  burst  of  enthusiasm,  in  the  midst  of 
some  great  social  and  political  revolution  like  that  of  1848.  women,  too,  may  be 
given  their  political  and  legal  rights.  Alexandre  Dumas  said  some  time  ago  that 
women  would  vote  in  France  within  ten  years.     He  may  be  right. 

Very  truly  yours,  Theodore  Stanton. 

London,  March  18,  1888. 

My  Dear  Miss  Anthony:  It  is  with  a  feeling  of  deep  regret  that  I  am  obliged 
to  say  "no"  to  your  most  kind  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  International 
Council  of  Women  to  be  held  at  Washington  the  last  days  of  this  month.  It 
will  be  a  most  interesting  and  ever-memorable  gathering.  I  shall  be  with  you 
in  spirit  although  it  is  beyond  my  power  to  be  with  you  in  person. 

I  think,  politically,  we  are  making  great  way  in  England.  The  Women's  Liberal 
Associations  are  becoming  a  powerful  organization  in  the  country,  and  numbers 
more  than  16,000  members  at  the  present  moment.  In  this  district,  for  instance, 
we  form  the  fifth  ward  to  the  Men's  Association,  and  we  send  seven  members  to 
the  executive  committee.  Within  the  last  few  days  this  executive  has,  among 
others,  appointed  V.  R.  Bates  (a  niece  of  Sir  Roland  Hill's)  and  myself,  as  two  of 
its  representatives  on  the  council  of  the  Liberal  and  Radical  Unions,  and  myself  into 
its  general  committee.  These  are  the  first  appointments  of  the  kind  that  have  been 
made.  The  L.  and  R.  Union  is  the  central  organization  of  all  the  Liberal  and 
Radical  associations  in  London.  Now  two  ladies,  at  all  events,  will  have  a  voice  in 
the  business  transactions  of  this  body.  Are  we,  in  England,  or  you,  in  America, 
nearest  the  goal,  I  wonder? 

With  kindest  regards,  and  hopiag  that  I  may  have  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you 
again  at  no  distant  date,  believe  me, 

Yours  sincerely,  Jane  Cobden. 


REPORT  OF  THE 

COMMITTEE  OF  ARRANGEMENTS. 


The  Committee  of  Arrangements*  for  the  International  Council  of  Women 
was  appointed  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage 
Association  at  its  Nineteenth  Annual  Convention,  held  in  Washington,  Jan- 
uary, 1887.  The  Committee  held  its  first  meeting  in  Philadelphia  early  in 
February,  at  which  the  work  was  planned.  June  1,  the  Calif  was  issued 
accompanied  by  an  Appeal  for  funds.  During  July  and  August  the 
greater  part  of  the  Official  Invitations  were  sent  out  to  the  Associations 
selected  as  being  of  either  national  scope  or  national  value.  Invitations 
(official)  were  also  extended  to  a  number  of  women,  who,  as  individuals, 
were  considered  representative  of  lines  of  work  not  yet  organized. 

The  complete  list  of  associations  invited  includes,  in  addition  to  those 
accepting. £  the  following: 

Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae. 
Society  to  Encourage  Studies  at  Home. 
Society  for  Collegiate  Instruction  of  Women. 
Women's  State  Fair  Association  (Indiana). 
British  National  Society  for  Women's  Suffrage. 
Somerset  Club  (London). 
Primrose  League  (England). 
Society  for  Higher  Education  (England). 
German  Women's  Union  (represented  by  letters,  page  219). 
Canadian  Woman  Skkkkaok  Association. 
Order  of  the  Eastern  Star  (Freemasons). 
Daughters  ok  REBEKAB  (Odd  Fellows). 

Baptist  Women's  Missionary  Societies  (Home  and  Foreign). 
Methodist  Women's  Missionary  Societies  (Home  and  Foreign). 
Congregational  Women's  Missionary  Societies  (Home  and  Foreign). 
Protestant  Episcopal  Women's  Missionary  Societies  (Home  and  Foreign). 
Society  for  the  Amelioration  of  the  Condition  of  Women  and  the  Claim- 
ing of  their  HionTs  (represented  by  letter,  page  444). 
League  for  the  Protection  of  Women  (France). 
International  Union  of  the  Friends  of  Young  Girls  (France). 
Work  in  the  Protestant  Prisons  (France). 
Society  of  Associated  Schools  (Copenhagen). 
Political  Club  (Copenhagen). 
Women's  Reading  Clubs  (Denmark). 
Students'  Association  (Denmark). 

Early  in  December  the  Committee  met  in  Indianapolis  and  the  general 

*See  names  of  Committee  appended  to  Call,  page  11. 

+See  pages  10, 11. 

*See  list,  pages  49,  50,  and  errata,  page  8  . 


448  International  Council  of  Women. 

programme  of  the  proceedings  was  there  outlined.  The  months  intervening 
between  this  meeting  and  March  25,  were  devoted  to  correspondence  with  the 
delegates  and  official  guests,  in  relation  to  their  topics,  time,  and  position 
upon  the  programme.  Miss  Anthony  went  to  Washington  in  January, 
where  she  was  joined  in  February  by  Miss  Foster,  the  headquarters  of  the 
Council  being  the  Riggs  House.  March  10,  it  was  decided,  after  corre- 
spondence with  Mrs.  Clara  B.  Colby,  to  issue  the  Woman's  Tribune  daily 
during  the  Council,  and  announcement  of  this  was  accordingly  made. 

The  Delegates  were  requested  to  meet  with  the  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments the  afternoon  of  Saturday,  March  24,  in  the  Red  Parlor  of  the  Riggs 
House.  At  3  P.  M.  they  were  called  to  order  by  Miss  Anthony,  chairman 
of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  Of  the  forty-eight  duly  accredited  Del- 
egates a  majority  were  present.  After  the  preliminary  business,  Mrs.  Sewall, 
at  the  request  of  the  Chairman,  stated  briefly  her  plan  of  forming,  as  a 
fitting  result  of  the  present  Council,  two  permanent  organizations,  National 
and  International,  which  should  make  possible,  at  regular  intervals,  rep- 
resentative meetings  of  the  same  character.  Mrs.  Sewall  then  moved  :  That  a 
committee  be  appointed  to  consider  the  question  of  National  and  Inter- 
national Councils,  and  to  report  to  the  Delegates  a  basis  of  organization. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  question,  the  following  persons  participated  : 
Frances  E.Willard,  Mary  A.  Livermore,  Julia  Ward  Howe,  EdnahD.  Cheney, 
Lucy  Stone,  Mary  F.  Eastman,  Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles,  Alice  Scatcherd,  Alex- 
andra Gripenberg,  Hannah  Whitall  Smith,  Lita  Barney  Sayles,  Rev.  An- 
toinette B.  Blackwell,  May  Wright  Sewall,  and  Rachel  Foster.  Mrs.  Sew- 
all's  motion  was  passed,  and  it  was  further  decided  that  the  committee  should 
consist  of  fifteen  persons  appointed  by  the  chair,  and  that  it  be  pre- 
pared to  report  to  a  Delegate  Meeting  on  Saturday  afternoon,  March  31.* 
The  Committee  on  Organization  was  authorized  to  appoint  a  Committee 
of  nine  on  Nominations,  said  committee  to  report  only  in  case  the  Dele- 
gates' meeting  should  decide  to  organize  the  permanent  councils.  After 
some  discussion,  but  no  further  official  action,  the  meeting  adjourned. 

The  Committee  on  Organization  met  Tuesday,  March  27,  at  9  A.  M. 
After  discussion,  a  resolution  in  favor  of  the  formation  of  a  National  and  an 
International  Council  was  passed.  Miss  Willard  presented  an  outline  of  con- 
stitutions for  the  two  councils  which  was  referred  to  a  sub-committee  of  three: 
Miss  Willard,  Miss  Eastman,  and  Mrs.  Sewall.  A  Committee  on  Nomina- 
tions was  nominated  from  the  floor:  Chairman,  Clara  Barton;  M.  Louise 
Thomas,  Mary  F.  Eastman,  May  Wright  Sewall,  Leonora  M.  Barry,  Clara 
Cleghorne  Hoffman,  Frances  E.  Willard,  Ada  C.  Bowles,  Rachel  G.  Foster. 
It  was  moved  that  Miss  Willard,  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Organi- 
zation, request  Miss  Anthony  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  Delegates,  at  the  ad- 
journment of  the  public  session  that  morning,  that  this  committee  might  ask 
*  See  names  of  Committee,  page  50. 


Report  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  449 

the  power  to  add  the  foreign  Delegates  to  the  Committee  for  the  nomina- 
tion of  officers  for  the  International  Council.     Adjourned. 

The  second  Delegates'  Meeting  took  place  on  the  platform  of  Albaugh's 
Opera  House  at  the  close  of  the  public  session  of  Tuesday  morning,  March 
27.  A  quorum  having  been  secured,  Miss  Anthony  called  the  meeting  to 
order.  Miss  Willard  presented  the  request  of  the  Committee  on  Organiza- 
tion, which  was  unanimously  approved  ;  after  which  the  meeting  adjourned.* 

Wednesday,  March  28,  the  Committee  on  Organization  met  at  9  A.  M., 
when  a  draft  of  preamble  and  constitutions  was  presented,  discussed,  and 
referred  again  to  the  Sub-committee  on  Constitution.     Adjourned. 

At  one  o'clock  of  Wednesday  the  Committee  on  Nominations  met  in  the 
private  dining-room  of  the  Riggs  House.  Officers  were  first  nominated  for 
the  proposed  International  Council.  This  done,  the  foreign  delegates  with- 
drew, and  the  home  delegates  nominated  the  officers  for  a  National 
Council  of  the  United  States.     Adjourned. 

Saturday,  March  31,  at  9  A.  M.,  the  Committee  on  Organization  met 
and  adopted  the  report  of  the  Sub-committee  on  Constitution. 

Saturday,  March  31,  at  3  P.  M.,  in  the  Red  Parlor  of  the  Riggs  House, 
the  third  Delegates'  Meeting  convened.  Miss  Willard,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Basis  of  Organization,  read  the  following  report : 

Mindful  of  the  high  duties  entrusted  to  its  care,  your  Committee  lias  earnestly 
addressed  itself  to  the  problem  of  a  National  and  an  International  Council  of 
Women — first,  as  to  the  practicability  of  forming  two  such  great  organizations,  in 
which  should  be  included  the  organized  working  forces  of  the  world's  womanhood' 
and,  secondly,  as  to  their  object  and  method. 

As  a  result  of  our  deliberations,  we  respectfully  report: 

First.  We  [Mrs.  Scatclierd  dissenting  as  to  the  International]  are  strongly  in  favor 
of  such  a  fv.  deration — National  and  International — believing  that  it  will  incalculably 
increase  the  world's  sum  total  of  womanly  courage,  efficiency,  and  esprit  de  corps  ; 
that  it  will  V  iden  our  horizon,  correct  the  tendency  to  an  exaggerated  impression  of 
one's  own  work  as  compared  with  that  of  others,  and  put  the  wisdom  and  experience 
of  each  at  the  service  of  all. 

Secondly.  We   suggest  that  the  form  of  organization  be  the  simplest  possible, 
following  the  general  plan  of  the  present  Council,  and  to  this  end  we  offer  forms  of 
Constitution,  adapted  to  a  National  and  to  an  International  Council  of  Women. 
Chairman,  Frances  E.  Willard;  Victoria  Richardson,  Ada  C.  Bowles,  M. 

Louise  Thomas,  Clara  Barton,  Mary  F.  Eastman,  May  Wright  Sewall, 

Martha  R.  Field,  Bessie  Starr  Reefer,  Alice  Scatcherd,  Isabelle  Boge- 

lot,  Laura  Ormiston  Chant,  S.  Magelsson  Groth,  Alexandra  Gripenberg; 

Secretary,  Rachel  G.  Foster. 

The  constitutions  which  follow  were  read    as  a  whole. f      It    was    then 

*The  persons  added  were :  Alice  Scatcherd,  Laura  Ormiston  Chant,  and  Mrs.  Ashton  Dilke, 
England ;  S.  Magelsson  Groth,  Norway;  Alexandra  Gripenberg,  Finland ;  Mrs.  McDonell 
and  Bessie  Starr  Keefer, Canada;  Zadel  Barnes Gustafson,  England;  Isabelle  Bogelot,  France. 

t  During  the  discussion  of  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Organization,  Mrs.  Alice  Scatch- 
erd and  Mrs.  Ashton  Dilke  requested  leave  to  withdraw,  as  they  did  not  desire  to  assume  any 
responsibility  in  the  formation  of  the  International  Council. 


450  International  Council  of  Women. 

moved  and  carried  to  act  upon  the  preamble  and  articles  seriatim,  as  also 
upon  the  recommendations.  They  were  adopted  as  reported  by  the  com- 
mittee, with  the  exception  of  the  change  of  the  word  "biennial"  to  "  tri- 
ennial," in  Articles  IV.,  V.,  and  VI. ,  of  the  National  Constitution,  and 
of  the  word  "quadrennial"  to  "quintennial,"  in  the  corresponding  articles 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  International  Council. 

Constitution  of  the 

WOMAN'S  NATIONAL  COUNCIL  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

Organized  at  Washington,  D.  O,  March  31,  1888. 


PREAMBLE. 

We,  women  of  the  United  States,  sincerely  believing  that  the  hest  good  of  our 
homes  and  nation  will  be  advanced  by  our  own  greater  unity  of  thought,  sympathy 
and  purpose,  and  that  an  organized  movement  of  women  will  best  conserve  the 
highest  good  of  the  family  and  the  State,  do  hereby  band  ourselves  together  in  a 
confederation  of  workers  committed  to  the  overthrow  of  all  forms  of  ignorance  and 
injustice,  and  to  the  application  of  the  Golden  Rule  to  society,,  custom,  and  law. 

That  we  may  more  successfully  prosecute  the  work,  we  adopt  the  following 

CONSTITUTION. 

Article  I. 

Name. 

This  federation  shall  be  called  the  Woman's  National  Council  of  the  United 
States. 

Article  II. 
General  Policy. 

This  Council  is  organized  in  the  interest  of  no  one  propaganda,  and  has  no  power 

over  its  auxiliaries  beyond  that  of  suggestion  and  sympathy;  therefore,  no  society 

voting  to  become  auxiliary  to  this  Council,  shall  thereby  render  itself  liable  to  be 

interfered  with  in  respect  to  its  complete  organic  unity,  independence,  or  methods 

of  work,  or  be  committed  to  any  principle  or  method  of  any  other  society  or  to  any 

utterance  or  act  of  the  Council  itself,  beyond  compliance  with  the  terms  of  this 

Constitution. 

Article  III. 

Officers. 

The  officers  shall  be  a  President,  Vice-President  at  Large,  Corresponding  Secre- 
tary, Recording  Secretary,  and  Treasurer.  Each  president  of  an  auxiliary  society 
shall  be  ex-officio  vice-president  of  the  National  Council,  and  the  President  of  the 
National  Council  shall  be  ex-officio  Vice-President  of  the  International  Council. 

The  five  general  officers,  with  the  Vice-Presidents,  shall  constitute  an  Executive 
Committee,  of  which  seven  members  shall  make  a  quorum,  to  control  and  provide 
for  the  general  interests  of  the  Council. 

Article  IV. 
Auxiliaries. 

Any  society  of  women,  the  nature  of  whose  work  is  satisfactory  to  the  Executive 
Committee,  either  as  to  its  undoubtedly  national  character  or  national  value,  may 
become  auxiliary  to  this  Council  by  its  own  vote  and  by  the  payment  of  a  sum 
amounting  to  half  a  cent  yearly  per  member,  in  addition  to  a  payment  of  twenty-five 
dollars,  into  the  treasury  of  the  National  Council  not  later  than  three  months  prior 
to  its  triennial  meetings. 


Report  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  451 

Article  "V. 
Meetings. 
The  National  Council  shall  hold  triennial  meetings.    The  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments shall  be  composed  of  the  Executive  Committee  and  one  delegate  chosen  by 
each  auxiliary  society  as  its  representative. 

Article  VI. 
This  Constitution  may  be  altered  or  amended  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  Council 
at  any  triennial  meeting,  printed  notice  thereof  having  been  sent  to  each  member 
of  the  Executive  Committee  at  least  three  months  prior  to  such  meeting. 


Constitution  of  the 

INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  OF  WOMEN, 

Organized  at  Washington,  D.  C,  United  States  of  America, 

March  31,  1888. 


PREAMBLE. 

We,  women  of  All  Nations,  sincerely  believing  that  the  best  good  of  humanity 
will  be  advanced  by  greater  unity  of  thought,  sympathy,  and  purpose,  and  that  an 
organized  movement  of  women  will  best  conserve  the  highest  good  of  the  family 
and  the  State,  do  hereby  band  ourselves  together  in  a  confederation  of  workers  com- 
mitted to  the  overthrow  of  all  forms  of  ignorance  and  injustice,  and  to  the  applica- 
tion of  the  Golden  Rule  to  society,  custom,  and  law. 

That  we  may  more  successfully  prosecute  the  work,  we  adopt  the  following 

CONSTITUTION. 

Article  I. 
Name. 
This  federation  shall  be  called  the  International  CounciLof  Women. 

Article  II. 
General  Policy. 
This  International  Council  is  organized  in  the  interest  of  no  one  propaganda,  and 
has  no  power  over  its  auxiliaries  beyond  that  of  suggestion  and  sympathy;  there- 
fore, no  National  Council  voting  to  become  auxiliary  to  the  International,  shall 
thereby  render  itself  liable  to  be  interfered  with  in  respect  to  its  complete  organic 
unity,  independence,  or  methods  of  work,  or  shall  be  committed  to  any  principle  or 
method  of  any  other  Council,  or  to  any  utterance  or  act  of  this  International  Council, 
beyond  compliance  with  the  terms  of  this  Constitution. 

Article  III. 
Officers. 
The  officers  shall  be  a  President,  Vice-President  at  Large,  Corresponding  Secre- 
tary, Recording  Secretary,  and  Treasurer.     Each  President  of  a  National  Council 
shall  be  ex-officio  Vice-President  of  the  International  Council. 

The  five  general  officers,  with  the  Vice-Presidents,  shall  constitute  an  Executive 
Committee,  of  which  seven  members  shall  make  a  quorum,  to  control  and  provide 
for  the  general  interests  of  the  International  Council. 

Article  IV. 
Auxiliaries. 
Any  National  Council  may  become  auxiliary  to  the  International  Council  by  its 


452  International  Council  of  Women. 

own  vote  and  by  the  payment  of  one  hundred  dollars  every  five  years.  This  sum 
shall  be  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  International  Council  not  later  than  three 
months  prior  to  its  quintennial  meetings. 

Article  V. 
Meetings. 
The  International  Council  shall  hold  quintennial  meetings.     The  Committee  of 
Arrangements  shall  be  composed  of  the  Executive  Committee  and  one  delegate  from 
each  National  Council. 

Article  VI. 

This  Constitution  maybe  altered  or  amended  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  Council  at 
any  quintennial  meeting,  printed  notice  thereof  having  been  sent  to  each  member  of 
the  Executive  Committee  at  least  three  months  prior  to  such  meeting. 

RECOMMENDATIONS.* 

First.  That  the  general  officers  of  the  National  Council  be  instructed  to  issue 
an  address  at  once,  to  the  women  of  the  United  States  setting  forth  the  objects  of  this 
new  organization. 

Second.  That  the  general  officers  of  each  association  secure,  if  possible,  a  letter 
of  approval  of  the  organization,  signed  by  representative  women  of  all  countries, 
urging  the  co-operation  of  all  women,  irrespective  of  race  or  creed,  to  be  used  in 
connection  with  the  official  address. 

Third.  That  the  general  officers  of  both  National  and  International  Councils  be 
instructed  to  enact  by-laws  for  their  guidance,  which  shall  be  valid  until  the  first 
regular  meeting  of  each  council  shall  be  held:  Provided,  That  no  By-law  shall  be 
passed  which  is  not  in  exact  accord  with  the  Constitution. 

Fourth.  That  a  clause  be  inserted  into  either  the  Constitution  or  By-laws,  pro- 
viding that  no  person  shall  occupy  the  office  of  President  two  consecutive  terms. 
Unanimously  adopted. 

After  the  adoption  of  these  constitutions  Miss  B-irton,  as  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Nominations,  brought  in  her  report.  The  vote  was  taken  by 
ballot,  separately,  upon  the  officers  of  each  Council.  The  result  was  the 
election  of  the  tickets  reported  by  the  committee,  as  follows : 

OFFICERS  OF   THE   NATIONAL    COUNCIL. 

President : 

Frances  E.  Willard,  Illinois. 

Evanston. 

Vice-President-at-Large  : 

Susan  B.  Anthony,  New  York. 

Rochester, 

Corresponding  Secretary  : 

Mat  Wright  Sewali,,  Indiana. 

343  North  Pennsylvania  Street,  Indianapolis. 

Recording  Secretary  : 

Mary  F.  Eastman,  Massachusetts. 

Tewksbury. 

Treasurer : 

M.  Louise  Thomas,  New  York. 

Thomas  Avenue.  Fordham. 


*  These  recommendations  refer  to  both  organizations. 


Report  of  the  Committee' of  Arrangements.  453 

OFFICERS  OF   THE   INTERNATIONAL   COUNCIL. 

President : 

Millicext  Garrett  Fawcett,  England. 

2  Gower  Street,  London. 

Vice-President-at-Large : 

Clara  Barton,  America. 

Washington,  J).  G. 

Corresponding  Secretary  : 

Rachel  G.  Foster,  America. 

748  N.  Nineteenth  Street,  Philadelphia. 

Recording  Secretary  : 

Kirstine  Frederiksen,   Denmark. 

4  Kastaniewej ,  Copenhagen. 

Treasurer : 

Isabelle  Bogelot,  France. 

4  Rue  Ferrault,  Paris. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  prepare  a  letter  to  be  given  to  the  press  as 
the  expression  of  this  Council,  said  committee  to  report  to  the  next  meet- 
ing.    Adjourned. 

The  fourth  Delegates'  Meeting  (thirty  present)  convened  at  the  Riggs 
House  Monday  afternoon,  April  2,  Miss  Anthony  presiding.  Miss  Willard, 
as  chairman  of  the  committee,  presented  the  report  on  Official  Letter  of  the 
Council.  The  report  produced  an  animated  discussion,  in  which  almost 
every  person  present  took  part.  It  was  finally  decided,  by  a  vote  of  21  to  7, 
to  appoint  a  new  committee  (Miss  Willard,  being  about  to  leave  the  city, 
could  not  serve  further)  to  draft  a  brief  official  statement  of  the  points 
upon  which  the  Council  was  one  in  sentiment.  This  committee  consisted 
of  Mrs.  Sewall,  Miss  Eastman,  and  Miss  Foster.  It  was  agreed  that  when 
the  meeting  adjourned  it  should  be  to  convene  Tuesday,  April  3,  at  9  A.  M., 
to  receive  their  report. 

A  resolution  was  passed  authorizing  the  Secretary  to  forward  a  letter  of 
appreciation  to  the  various  foreign  associations  which  had  sent  delegates  to 
the  Council  ;  also  a  letter,  accompanied  by  the  report,  to  every  female  sover- 
eign (reigning  or  consort)  in  all  the  countries  of  the  world,  expressing  pleas- 
ure in  their  delegates,  or  regret  that  none  had  been  sent.  The  Secretary  was 
also  authorized  to  send  cablegrams  of  greeting  from  the  Council  to  Presi- 
dent and  Madam  Carnot,  France ;  Victoria,  Empress  of  Germany ;  the 
Crown  Princess  of  Denmark ;  Mrs.  Priscilla  Bright  McClaren,  Mrs.  Jose- 
phine Butler,  Mrs.  Jacob  Bright,  and  Mrs.  Elmy,  of  England. 

A  most  cordial  expression  of  thanks  was  passed  by  a  rising  vote  to  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  C.  W.  Spofford  for  their  exceeding  kindness  and  hospitality  to  all 
the  members  of  the  Council,  and  a  committee — consisting  of  Mrs.  Stanton, 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  L.  Saxon,  and  Miss  Foster — was  appointed  to  arrange  a  tes- 


454  International  Council  of  Women. 

timonial  to  be  presented  to  Mrs.  Spofford  on  behalf  of  the  delegates.*  A 
vote  of  thanks  was  passed  to  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  Adjourned. 
The  fifth  and  final  Meeting  of  the  Delegates  was  held  at  9  A.  M.,  Tuesday, 
April  3,  Miss  Anthony  in  the  chair.  The  report  of  the  committee  was  pre- 
sented by  Mrs.  Sevvall. 

OFFICIAL   STATEMENT   OF   THE   INTERNATIONAL   COUNCIL. 

The  International  Council  of  "Women,  in  session  in  the  city  of  Washington  from 
March  25  to  April  1,  inclusive,  in  closing  makes  public  announcement  that  fifty- 
three  t  different  organizations  of  women  have  been  represented  on  its  platform  by 
eighty  speakers  and  forty-nine  delegates  from  England,  France,  Norway,  Denmark, 
Finland,  India,  Canada,  and  the  United  States.  All  of  these  organizations  but  four 
are  of  national  scope,  and  these  are  of  national  value.  The  subjects  of  Education, 
Philanthropies,  Temperance,  Industries,  Professions,  Organization,  Legal  Condi- 
tions, Social  Purity,  Political  Conditions,  and  Religion  have  been  discussed.  While 
no  restriction  has  been  placed  upon  the  fullest  expression  of  the  most  widely  diverg- 
ent views  upon  these  vital  questions  of  the  age,  it  is  cause  for  rejoicing  that  the  ses- 
sions, both  executive  and  public,  have  been  absolutely  without  friction. 

It  is  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  Council ;  that  all  institutions  of  learning  and  of 
professional  instruction,  including  schools  of  theology,  law,  and  medicine,  should, 
in  the  interests  of  humanity,  be  as  freely  opened  to  women  as  to  men;  that  oppor- 
tunities for  industrial  training  should  be  as  generally  and  liberally  provided  for  one 
sex  as  for  the  other,  and  the  representatives  of  organized  womanhood  in  this  Coun- 
cil will  steadily  demand  that  in  all  avocations  in  which  both  men  and  women  engage 
equal  wages  shall  be  paid  for  equal  work;  and,  finally,  that  an  enlightened  society 
should  demand,  as  the  only  adequate  expression  of  the  high  civilization  which  it  is 
its  office  to  establish  and  maintain,  an  identical  standard  of  personal  purity  and 
morality  for  men  and  women. 

This  report  was  unanimously  accepted  and  the  Secretary  directed  to  give 
it  to  the  press  and  have  it  printed  for  circulation.     Adjourned. 

A  reference  to  some  of  the  details  of  the  management  may  serve  to  give  an 
idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work. \     By  appointment  of  the  chairman  of  the 

*The  result  of  the  Committee's  consultation  was  the  presentation  to  Mrs.  Spofford  of  a  gold 
monogram  pin— I.  C.  W.— and  a  handsomely-framed  photographic  group  of  the  members  of 
the  Council.  Mrs.  Spofford  desires  the  Secretary  to  convey  to  the  delegates  her  thanks  for 
these  pleasant  souvenirs  of  that,  to  her,  delightful  occasion. 

tSee  pages  49  and  50.  This  list  should  contain  also,  as  52,  the  New  England  Hospital  for 
Women  and  Children— Delegate,  Mrs.  Ednah  D.  Cheney— and  the  fifty-third  is  the  National 
Woman  Suffrage  Association. 

X  The  magnitude  of  the  work  of  the  Council  may  be  better  appreciated  by  a  mention  of  a  few 
figures  in  this  connection.  There  were  printed  and  distributed  by  mail  10,000  Calls  (four  pages 
each) ;  10,000  Appeals  (two  pages  each) ;  sketches  were  prepared  of  the  lives  and  work  of 
a  number  of  the  delegates  and  circulated  by  means  of  a  Press  Committee  of  over  ninety 
persons  in  various  cities  of  many  States.  March  10,  the  first  edition  (5,000)  of  the  sixteen- 
page  programme  was  issued ;  this  was  followed  by  five  other  editions  of  5,000  each  and 
a  final,  seventh  edition  of  7,000  copies.  Each  edition  required  revision  and  the  introduction  of 
slight  changes  made  necessary  by  changing  conditions  in  the  meeting.  There  were  written  in 
connection  with  the  preparations  about  4,000  letters.  Including  those  concerning  railroad 
rates,  there  were  not  less  than  10,000  more  circulars  of  various  kinds  printed  and  distributed. 
A  low  estimate  of  the  number  of  pages  thus  issued  (circulars,  calls,  programmes,  etc.)  gives 
672,000.  During  the  week  of  the  Council  and  the  Convention  of  the  N.  W.  S.  A.  (April  3  and 
4)  the  Woman's  Tribune  was  published  eight  times  (four  days  16  pages ;  four  days  12  pages), 
the  daily  edition  averaging  12,500  copies.  {See  note  continued  on  opposite  page.) 


Report  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  455 

Committee  of  Arrangements,  Mrs.  Helen  M.  Gougar  was,  in  December,  1887, 
made  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Railroads.  That  this  work  was  well 
done,  the  many  visitors  to  the  Council  from^all  parts  of  the  country,  who 
enjoyed  the  benefit  of  the  reduction  secured,  can  testify.  The  death  of  a 
near  relative  summoned  Mrs.  Gougar  from  Washington  to  her  home  in 
Indiana,  a  few  days  before  the  Council  opened.  Her  work  was  left  with 
Miss  Lucy  E.  Anthony,  who  took  entire  and  efficient  charge  of  this  depart- 
ment during  the  Council  and  the  Convention  of  the  National  Woman  Suf- 
frage Association  which  followed  it. 

The  Committee  on  Hotels  and  Boarding  Places,  of  which  Mrs.  Mary  S. 
Lockwood  was  chairman,  had  a  necessary  and  very  thankless  share  of  the 
Council  work.  Fully  a  month  before  the  meetings  opened,  Mrs.  Lock- 
wood's  correspondence  began  to  increase  and  inquiries  concerning  accom- 
modations poured  in  upon  her.  During  the  Council,  and  for  several  days 
preceding  it,  some  member  of  this  committee  was  on  duty  during  the  entire 
day  in  Parlor  41,  Riggs  House. 

The  almost  Herculean  task  which  Mrs.  Colby  undertook,  single-handed, 
in  editing  the  daily  Woman  s  Tribune,  can  be  appreciated  by  no  one  outside 
of  the  few  who  were  attending  constantly  to  the  Council  machinery.  For- 
tunately the  editor  found  an  able  helper  in  Mrs.  Elvira  Bushnell,  of  Cleve- 
land, who,  though  she  had  come  to  attend  the  Council,  relinquished  the 
pleasure  for  the  work  and  devoted  all  her  days  to  aiding  Mrs.  Colby  in  her 
undertaking. 

In  securing  Miss  Mary  F.  Seymour,  of  New  York,  to  take  charge  of  the  sten- 
ographic report,  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  builded  better  than  they 
knew.  Her  work  should  forever  silence  those  who  deny  to  women  the  pos- 
session of  executive  ability.  With  the  cool  head  and  practical  hand  of  a 
veteran,  she  organized  and  trained  in  a  few  days  a  new  corps  of  assistants, 
reduced  the  details  of  her  work  to  a  perfect  system,  and  in  fact  managed  the 
stupendous  enterprise  of  furnishing  daily  verbatim  reports  of  the  addresses, 
not  only  to  the  Woman's  Tribune,  but  to  many  representatives  of  the  press, 
with  a  success,  if  not  unparalleled,  at  least  unexcelled.  It  was  Miss  Seymour's 
original   intention   to  take  stenographic  notes  herself,  assisted  by  Miss  E. 

The  receipts  from  contributions  and  memberships  were  in  round  numbers  $5,000 ;  from  sale 
of  seats  and  boxes  at  opera-house  $5,000,  ana  from  sale  of  daily  Woman's  Tribune,  photo- 
graphs and  badges,  collection,  advertisements,  etc.,  $1,500,  making  a  total  of  nearly  $12,000. 
The  largest  sums  were  from  Julia  T.  Foster,  $400 ;  Elizabeth  Thompson,  $250 ;  Mrs.  Leland 
Stanford,  $200 ;  Rachel  G.  Foster,  $200 ;  and  $100  each  from  Adeline  Thomson,  Ellen  Clark 
Sargent,  Emma  J.  Bartol,  Margaret  Caine,  Sarah  Knox  Goodrich,  Mary  Hamilton  Williams, 
Lucy  W.  Curtis,  Mary  Gray  Dow,  Jane  S.  Richards,  George  W.  Childs,  and  Henry  C.  Parsons. 
The  cost  of  the  Tribune  (printing,  stenographic  report,  mailing,  etc.)  was  over  $3,600 ;  hall 
rent,  $1,800.  When  one  considers  the  entertainment  of  so  many  officers,  speakers  and  dele- 
gates, printing,  postage,  the  salary  of  one  clerk  for  a  year  (whose  board  was  a  contribution 
from  Miss  Adeline  Thomson  and  Miss  Julia  Foster,  of  Philadelphia),  and  the  thousand  etceteras 
of  such  a  meeting,  the  total  cost  of  $10,000  is  not  surprising.  An  international  convention  of 
men,  held  in  Washington  within  a  year,  cost  in  round  numbers  $50,000  ! 


456  International  Council  of  Women. 

Parsons,  another  expert  reporter  ;  but  soon  after  her  arrival  it  was  found 
that  the  management  alone  required  her  entire  attention  ;  she  therefore  tel- 
egraphed for  Mrs.  E.  F.  Pettingill  to  take  her  place  at  the  reporters'  table.  Of 
the  skillful  work  done  by  these  ladies,  Miss  Seymour  speaks  in  the  highest 
terms.* 

The  decorations  of  the  auditorium  at  Albaugh's  Opera  House  were  under 
the  superintendence  of  Mrs.  Jane  H.  Spofford,  who  spared  neither  time  nor 
pains  to  have  them  tasteful  and  appropriate. f  To  Mrs.  Spofford,  as  an 
officer  of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  and  a  member  of  the 
Committee  of  Arrangements,  was  due  a  large  share  of  the  success  of  the 
Council. 


eo]vi]vii'i"i'EEs5  of  tfjiE  eotWeiL. 

COMMITTEE  OF  ARRANGEMENTS  (Badge,  Black  and  Gold.) 

General  Officers  of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 

ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON,  RACHEL  G.  FOSTER, 

President.  Cor.  Sec. 

SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY,  JANE  H.  SPOFFORD, 
MATILDA  JOSLYN  GAGE,  Treasurer. 

Vice-Presidents  at  Large.  ELLEN  H.  SHELDON, 
MAY  WRIGHT  SEWALL, '  Pec.  Sec. 

Chairman  Ex.  Com. 


RAILROADS  (Badge,  Purple). 
HELEN  M.  GOUGAR,  Chairman.  LUCY  E.  ANTHONY. 


HOTELS  AND  BOARDING  PLACES  (Badge,  Mahogany). 

Chairman,  MARY  S.  LOCK  WOOD.  GEORGIE  SNOW. 

SALLIE  M.  R[XFORD.  HANNAH  B.  SPERRY. 

MARY  E.  MCPHERSON.  EMILY  F.  HORT. 


ENROLLMENT  OF  VISITORS  (Badge,  Light  Blue). 

Chairman,  HARRIET  PURVIS.  ELLA  WISE. 

MARY  S.  ANTHONY.  LAURA  M.  JOHNS. 

JULIA  T.  FOSTER. 


DECORATION  (Badge,  Lavender). 
Chairman,  MARY  NASON.  JANE  H.  SPOFFORD. 

BADGES  (Badge,  Pink). 
Chairman,  RACHEL  G.  FOSTER.  LUCY  E.  ANTHONY. 

PRESS  (Badge,  Red  and  Gold). 

Chairman,  RACHEL  G.  FOSTER.  ELLEN  H.  SHELDON. 

^  ,  TUNIE  H    SYMONDS,  Press  Agent.  1IARRIETTE  R.  SHATTUCK. 

HANNAH  B.  SPERRY. 


PUBLIC  RECEPTION  (Badge,  Dark  Blue). 

Chairman,  JANE  H.  SPOFFORD.  MAY  WRIGHT  SEWALL. 

tDa  '  LAURA  M.  JOHNS.  MATILDA  JOSLYN  GAGE 

CAROLINE  GILKEY  ROGERS. 


♦Eleven  yeai-s  ago  Miss  Seymour,  with  no  knowledge  of  sreneral  business,  began  her  career 
as  stenographer.  Since  that  time  she  has  built  up  the  largest  stenographic  and  type-writing 
business  in  the  United  States,  if  not  in  the  world.  Occupying  a  representative  position  her- 
self among  the  skillful  short-hand  reporters  of  the  country,  she  has  also  established  a  train- 
ing school  for  stenographers  and  type- writers,  which  is  a  model  of  its  kind.  Miss  Seymour 
has  this  Pamphlet  Report  of  the  Council  on  sale  at  her  office,  38  Park  Row,  Potter  Building. 
NeAV  York  city. 

tSee  page  30. 


Report  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  457 

MUSIC  (Badge,  Yellow  and  Brown). 

ELIZABETH  BOYNTON  HARBERT.  RACHEL  G.  FOSTER. 

MARY  SEYMOUR  HOWELL. 


REPORT  OF  COUNCIL  (Badge,  Grey  and  Gold). 

Chairman,  CLARA  B.  COLBY.  ANNA  L.  DIGGS. 

LAURA  M.  JOHNS.  ELIZABETH  L.  SAXON. 

SAKAII  M.  KMITH.  HANNAH  B.  SPERRY. 

JULIA  AMES.  MARY  DYE. 

ELIZABETH  BOYNTON  HARBERT. 


MARY  F.  SEYMOUR, 
Chief  of  Staff  of  Official  Reporters  and  Stenographers  I.  C.  W. 


Black  and  Gold,  Committee  of  Arrangements ;  Purple,  Railroads;  Lavender,  Decorations; 
Light  Blue,  Enrollment  of  Visitors  ;  Dark  Blue,  Public  Reception  ;  Brown  and  Gold,  Music  ;  Ma- 
hogany and  Yellow,  Hotels  and  Boarding  Places  ;  Pink,  Badges ;  Red  and  Gold,  Press  ;  Gray  and 
Gold,  Report  of  Council;  White,  Delegates  to  the  Council;  Green,  Official  Guests;  Yellow,  Officer 
of  the  N.  W.  a.  A. ;  Red,  White,  and  Blue,  Treasurer  N.  W.  8.  A. ;  Olive  Green,  Fraternal  Dele- 
gates ;  Red,  Reporters. 


The  story  of  the  Council  would  be  incomplete  without  some  reference  to 
the  social  events  of  this  significant  week.  The  public  reception  at  the  Riggs 
House*  was  followed  on  Sunday  evening  by  an  informal  gathering  in  the 
Red  Parlor,  announced  as  a  Service  of  Song.  Between  the  singing  of  the 
hymns  a  number  of  the  ladies  gave  their  reasons  for  the  "  faith  that  was 
within  them"  upon  the  Woman  Suffrage  question.  This  was  pronounced  by 
all  present  an  inspiring  occasion.  It  would  not  be  possible  to  give  here  in 
detail  the  receptions  and  meetings  of  the  week.  Every  hour  not  occupied 
by  the  sessions  of  the  Council,  was  filled  with  social  engagements.  Mrs. 
Louisa  Southworth,  of  Cleveland,  received  the  ladies  from  Ohio  each  after- 
noon. Mrs.  Amanda  C.  Tiffany,  of  New  York  city,  invited  the  ladies  of 
her  State  to  meet  in  her  private  parlor  at  the  Riggs  House.  Mrs.  Shattuck 
held  a  reception  in  the  Red  Parlor  for  the  ladies  from  Massachusetts,  and 
this  example  was  followed  by  the  daughters  of  Cassius  M.  Clay  for  Kentucky, 
and  by  the  visitors  from  several  other  States. 

The  lawyers  held  meetings,  resulting  in  the  formation  of  a  Woman's 
International  Bar  Association.  The  physicians  met  at  Mrs.  Bovee's.  The 
President  of  the  Western  Collegiate  Alumnae,  Mrs.  Stowell,  called  together 
the  women  especially  interested  in  educational  subjects.  Enthusiastic  mem- 
bers of  the  Ramabai  Circles  secured  a  short  talk  one  Sunday  afternoon,  from 
the  beloved  inspirer  of  this  noble  work  for  the  women  of  India. 

Friday,  March  30,  at  3  P.  M.,  the  President  and  Mrs.  Cleveland  received 
the  Council  and  its  visitors.  All  wore  the  yellow  ribbon — the  woman  suf- 
frage badge — on  this  occasion,  and  over  fifteen  hundred  persons  called  at  the 
Executive  Mansion.  Not  to  be  outdone  in  hospitality,  the  daughters,  grand- 
daughters, nieces,  and  grandnieces  of  the  Pioneers  made  a  social  occasion  of 
the  hours  immediately  following  the  Pioneers'  session  of  March  31,  and  the 
*See  page  23. 

.     30 


458  International  Council  of  Women. 

same  afternoon  Mrs.  Harriet  H.  Robinson  received  the  factory-girls  of  Low- 
ell, their  daughters  and  friends,  and  the  former  contributors  to  the  Lowell 
Offering. 

On  Monday  evening,  April  2,  Senator  and  Mrs.  T.  W.  Palmer,  of  Michi- 
gan, gave  a  handsome  reception  to  the  Foreign  Delegates.  Eight  hundred 
invitations  were  sent  out  to  the  members  of  the  Foreign  Legations,  prominent 
■Government  officials,  and  to  the  delegates  and  visitors  to  the  Council,  and 
more  than  a  thousand  persons  availed  themselves  of  the  occasion  to  make  the 
acquaintance  of  the  distinguished  foreign  guests. 

Tuesday  afternoon,  April  3,  Senator  and  Mrs.  Leland  Stanford,  of  Cali- 
fornia, opened  their  elegant  home  to  a  reception  in  honor  of  the  Pioneers 
in  the  Woman  Suffrage  movement.  In  response  to  the  many  cards  of 
invitation  issued,  hundreds  of  people  gladly  embraced  this  delightful  oppor- 
tunity to  salute  these  brave  women  who  have,  at  such  cost  to  themselves, 
broadened  and  enriched  the  lives  of  the  women  of  to-day. 

The  mallet  which  was  used  during  the  Council  was  presented  to  Miss 
Anthony  by  a  Southern  lady  with  the  following  letter  : 

New  Orleans,  La.,  March  19,  1888. 

Dear  Miss  Anthony:  Please  accept  the  accompanying  mallet,  manufactured 
from  the  magnolia  of  Louisiana  swamps,  as  a  token  of  good  will  and  fellowship 
from  your  Southern  sister;  and,  if  not  better  supplied,  do  her  the  honor  of  using 
it  at  the  International  Council  of  Women,  over  which  you  are  to  preside.  Trusting 
that  the  results  of  the  International  Council  may  not  only  strengthen  our  suffrage 
cause,  but  equal  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  all  of  its  friends,  I  herein  send 
my  sincerest  and  heartiest  "  God-speed"  to  the  good  work. 

Yours  fraternally,  Eliza  C.  Ferguson. 

In  addition  to  letters  already  mentioned,  greetings  and  regrets  have  been 
received  from  Mrs.  Minna  Canth  and  Mrs.  Betty  Loefgren,  Helsingfors, 
Finland  j  Mrs.  Alfhild  Agrell,  Mrs.  Anna  Charlotte  Edgren-Lemer,  and 
Prof.  Sonja  Kowalewski,  Stockholm;  Miss  Alma  Akermark,  Goteborg, 
Sweden  ;  Mrs.  Ragna  Neilson  and  Miss  Anna  Rogstad,  Christiania,  Nor- 
way;  Mrs.  Antonie  Lceken  and  Miss  Olany  Lceken,  Throndjem,  Norway; 
Signora  Fanny  Zampini  Salazaro,  Rome  ;  Dr.  Henriette  Tiburtius,  Berlin  ; 
Miss  Kirstine  Frederiksen  and  Miss  Johanna  Krebs,  Copenhagen ;  Isa- 
bella O.  Ford,  Leeds,  England  ;  Mrs.  Mentia  Taylor,  Lady  F.  W.  Harber- 
ton,  and  Mrs.  Millicent  Garrett  Fawcett,  London  ;  Miss  Eliza  Kirkland, 
Edinburgh ;  Dr.  Ewing  Whipple,  Liverpool ;  Dr.  Laura  Ross  Wolcott, 
Wisconsin  ;  Dr.  Agnes  Kemp,  Pennsylvania  (absent  in  Europe);  Augusta 
Cooper  Bristol,  New  Jersey  (absent  in  California);  Dr.  Seth  and  Hannah 
Rogers,  Connecticut ;  Dr.  Alida  C.  Avery,  California ;  Mrs.  Harriet  S. 
Brooks,  Nebraska ;  Mrs.  Sarah  Burger  Stearns,  Minnesota ;  Mrs.  Helen  M. 
Gougar,  Indiana  ;  Mrs.  Caroline  B.  Buell,  Illinois. 


APPENDIX. 

The  Christian  Woman's  Board  of  Missions*  accepted  the  invi- 
tation too  late  to  be  given  the  place  upon  the  programme 
which  the  committee  would  gladly  have  accorded  its  Report. 

CHRISTIAN   WOMAN'S    BOARD    OF   MISSIONS. 

Mrs.  Cordie  B.  Knowles,  Delegate. 

Emerson  says :  "America  is  another  name  for  opportunity.  Our  whole 
history  appears  like  a  last  effort  of  the  Divine  Providence  in  behalf  of  the 
human  race."  In  the  opening  page  of  "Our  Country"  Josiah  Strong 
writes  these  words  :  "There  are  certain  great  focal  points  of  history  toward 
which  the  lines  of  past  progress  have  converged,  and  from  which  have 
radiated  the  moulding  influences  of  the  future."  Such  will  this  International 
Council  be. 

I  come  to  you  as  a  delegate  from  the  Christian  Woman's  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, an  incorporated  body  which  raises,  controls,  and  disburses  its  funds 
entirely  separate  from  the  societies  officered  by  our  brethren,  yet  in  sympa- 
thy with  their  efforts.  So  well  have  our  ladies  managed  the.'r  finances  that 
the  cost  of  disbursing  its  funds,  though  amounting  to  many  thousands  of 
dollars  annually,  has  been  but  one-third  of  one  per  cent.  Such  women  as 
Eliza  Ballou  Garfield  and  Zeralda  G.  Wallace  have  given  us  the  influence  of 
their  lives.  Our  board  was  organized  in  1874.  Its  headquarters  are  at 
Indianapolis.  Its  auxiliaries  and  work  extend  into  every  State  and  Terri- 
tory of  the  Union,  to  Jamaica,  India,  and  Japan,  as  it  comprises  both  home 
and  foreign  work.  Our  local  societies  enroll  nearly  20,000  women,  and  in 
many  States  we  have  organizers  who  labor  to  rouse  the  women  to  show  their 
faith  by  their  works,  by  systematic  giving  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel. 
Our  children,  through  their  work  in  Mission  Bands,  are  our  builders.  They 
assisted  in  building  the  Josephine  Smith  Memorial  Chapel  in  Japan,  raised 
the  necessary  sum  to  build  a  bungalow  at  Bilaspur,  India,  and  this  year  are 
erecting  a  church  at  Missoula,  Montana. 

Miss  Mary  Greybiel,  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  a  young  lady  of  education  and 
culture,  was  among  the  young  women  who  went  to  India  in  1882  as  our 
Zenana  workers.  I  picked  up  a  Southern  paper  to-night,  and  my  eye  caught 
these  words:  "A  nervy  woman  ;  "  so  I  read  and  found  this  account  of  her 
work  in  building  the  bungalow  at  Bilaspur.  For  an  English  engineer  in- 
specting it  said,  "  No  man  could  have  done  better."  It  appears  that  she  had 
to  serve  as  architect,  master  builder,  and  general  boss  mechanic.  First  she 
bought  four  yoke  of  buffaloes  to  do  the  teaming  ;  then  a  few  big  trees — they 
*See  page  49. 


460  International  Council  of  Women. 

are  very  scarce  in  that  part  of  the  country.  She  employed  a  hundred  natives, 
or  nearly  that  number,  whom  she  taught  to  quarry  stone,  which  had  to  be 
hauled  several  miles ;  and  to  make  brick,  first  tramping  the  clay,  fashioning 
it  into  the  bricks  and  then  burning  them,  using  the  spare  portion  of  the  trees 
for  fuel.  The  trunks  of  the  trees  were  laboriously,  by  hand,  sawed  into 
boards  for  the  floors,  roofs,  etc.  A  stone  foundation  three  feet  thick  was 
laid  three  feet  below  ground  and  as  much  above,  this  solid  base  wall  being 
deemed  necessary  to  keep  out  white  ants,  which  are  a  great  pest  of  the  coun- 
try.    Evidently  a  good  job  was  made  of  the  wall. 

The  Missionary  Tidings  is  edited  and  published  monthly  at  Indianapolis 
by  Mrs.  S.  E.  Shortridge,  in  the  interest  of  our  work.  We  aim  to  spread 
the  pure  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God,  to  hasten  the  time  when  all  shall  know 
him,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest,  rather  than  to  the  building  up  of  denomi- 
national strongholds;  so  shall  "the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the 
kingdoms  of  the  Lord  and  of  his  Christ."  Said  Dr.  Beecher,  "  In  matters 
which  reach  Eternity,  now  is  always  the  nick  of  time."  Shall  we  not  go  to 
our  homes  determined  to  put  into  action  now  the  earnest  upliftings  of 
thought  we  have  heard  during  this  Council  ? 


INDEX. 


A. 

Abolitionist  Society,  259. 

Adams,  John,  337;  John  Quincy,  336;  George 
Francis,  407. 

Advancement  of  Women,  Society  for,  49, 189, 
193,195,218. 

Africa.  '_>::  I.  235,  429.— North,  260. 

Agrell,  Mrs.  Alfhild,  458. 

Akermark,  Miss  Alma,  458, 

Alabama,  131. 

Albanese,  Professor,  213. 

Albaugh's  Opera  House,  10,  24,  30. 

Alexandria,  262. 

Allen,  Ellen.   13. 

Allgemeine  Deutsche  Frauen  Verein,  Letter 
from  the,  219. 

Alplia,  The,  273. 

Alumnae,  Association  of  Collegiate,  50,  57,  1 17. 
—Western  Collegiate,  12,  49,  72.— Of  Michi- 
gan University,  80. 

America,  9,  112,  113.133,  146,164,160.  173, 
182,  192,  208,  287,  241,  246,  255,  266,261, 
•Ji;_>.  '2Hi»,  806,  849,  :ns.  :ii>4.  399,  426,  429, 

,    133,  138.  1  1 2.1  13—  South,  262. 

American  Law  tteview,  17s. 

American  Amendment  (see  Ked  Cross),  104, 
1<>5.  108. 

American  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  12, 14, 
15.  tit,  241. 

Amelioration  of  the  Condition  of  Women,  So- 
ciety for,  144.—  Letter  of,  11.. 

Amendments  to  IVderalConstitution— Twelfth, 
8  19 :  Thirteenth,  298,  3  19  ;  Fourteenth,  349  ; 
Fit  tenth,  298,  299,  300  ;  Proposed  Fifteenth, 
348. 

Ames.  Julia,  467. 

Anarchists,  164,  136. 

Anderson,  Dr.  Garrett,  383. 

Anderson  ville,  133. 

Anneke,  Madame,  868. 

Anthony,  Lucy  B  ,  165,  150. 

Anthony,  Mary  8.,  17.  15<>. 

Anthony,  Susan  B.,  Mention  of,  9,  10.  11,15, 
17.  is,  31,  :52,  17.  107,  ill.  162,  250.  286, 
297.  296,  299,  800,  301,  302.  324,325,336, 
348,363,354,381,398,  lis.  153,  166,  15s. 

Antilles.  The,  262. 

Anti-Slavery,   194.— American  Society,  338. 
Boston  Female  Society.   861.— World's  Con- 
vention, •->!»,  8  15.    (gee  Conventions.) 

Antwerp,  200. 

Aristotle,  lOl. 

Archibald,  Jane  15..  17. 

Argentine  Republic.  1  ,9. 

Arrangements,  Committee  of,  10;  Report  of, 

1  17    15S. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  437. 
Arrest  of  Women  on  the  Street,  236. 
Ashley,  llcv.,  34, . 
Aspasia.  ISO. 

Associated  Schools,  Society  of  (Denmark).  1 17. 
Astroem,  .Miss  Emma.  390. 
Auclert,  Hubertine.  9,  90;  Letter  of,  41. 
Austin,  Dr.  Harriet  N.,  17. 

Austria,  153.  259.  421).— Austro-Hungary,  179. 
Australia,  183,  429. 
Auxerre,  Council  of,  406. 
Avery,  Dr.  Alida  C,  15S. 


B. 

Backlund,  Mrs.,  390. 

Badges  for  Council,  157. 

Bahia,  262. 

Bailey,  Dr.,  354. 

Baltimore.  255. 

Bancroft,  Prof.  Jane  H.,  166. 

Banking  Accounts  of  Women  in  England,  232. 

Baptist   Women's   Missionary   Societies,   447. 

1  See  Freewill.) 
Barner,  Miss,  200. 
Barker,  Mrs.  E.  Florence,  13,  49.— Address  of, 

101-103. 
Barolong,  Tribe,  234,  235. 
Bar  Association,  Woman's  International,  1<  ,, 

179,  157. 
Barney,  Mrs   Susan  Hammond,  12,  13,  15,  49, 

226  ;  Address  on  Police  Matrons,  120-123. 
Barrows,  Mrs.  Isabel  C,  13,  49  ;  Address,  83- 

86. 
Barry,  Mrs.  Leonora  M.,  14,  50,  145,  162,  163, 

1  is  ;  Address,  1 53-1 50     (See  K.  of  L.) 
Barrau,  Caroline  de,  41, 90. 
Bartol,  Emma  J.,  455. 
Barton.  Clara.  13.    is.    49,  50,   133,  184.   351, 

352.  1  is  ;  Address  on  Ked  Cross,  103-107. 
Basil.  404. 
liastile.  The.  145, 
liates,  Miss  V.  K..   146. 
Baccini,  Ida,  210. 
Baccari,  Madame  G.  A.,  211. 
Balzani,  Countess,  209. 
liajer,  Mr.  ITederik,  203,204;  Mrs.  Mathilde, 

203. 
Bear,  Annette,  291.     s 
Becker,  Miss.  9. 
Beecher,  Catharine,  337. 
Belgium,  161.  254,  257. 
Belfast,  9,  1 1  l.  1 15. 

Benneson,  Cora  A..  12;  Address,  College  Fel- 
lowships for  Women,  77-80. 
Benjamin,  Hon.  R.  M..  175. 
Bennett,  Dr.  Alice,  172. 

Bergen,  203. 

Berlin.  220. 

Berners,  Mr.,  9. 

Bertani,  213. 

Bethel,  Mr.  Christopher,  234. 

Biggs,  Caroline  A.,  9,  41. 

Buaspur,  450 

Bird,  Clementine,  168. 

Birney,  Mrs.  36 1,  362. 

Bittenbender,  Mrs.  Ada  M.,  14,  177;  Address, 

Woman  in  Law,  173-179. 
Bin- Arm,  Louise,  42.        ' 
Bicernson,  B.jo'rnst.ierne,  205,  280,  281,  393. 
Blackwell,  Bev.  Antoinette  Brown,  11. 12,  17, 

is.    24,  29,  30,  32,  181,  325,  338,  300,  407, 

122;  Reminiscences,  340-342;   Science  and 

Religious  Truth,  407-4 1 5. 
Blackwell,  Henry  B.,  17,  343  ;  Reminiscences, 

335-339. 
Blackwell,  Dr.  Elizabeth,  95, 338,  352. 
Blackwell,  Dr  Emily,  95. 
Black  List  154,  156. 
Blagden,  Rev..  333. 
Blair,  Senator  Henrv  P.,  1 12, 134 ;  Educational 

Bill,  128. 


462 


International  Council  of  Women. 


Blake,  Mrs.  Lillie  Devereux,  15, 236 ;  Address, 
Legal  Disabilities,  226-229. 

Blatch,  Mrs.  Harriot  Stanton,  9,  43. 

Bloomer,  Amelia,  356  ;  Letter  of,  360. 

Bluestocking  Club,  215. 

Bocock,  Mrs.  E.  J.,  183. 

Bodiehon,  Barbara,  178. 

Bogstad,  Anna,  43. 

Bogelot,  Madame  Isabelle,  13,  18,44,  49,50, 
80,  449:  Address  on  Prison  Work,  90-94; 
Farewell,  425. 

Bohemia,  262. 

Bologna,  178. 

Bombay,  262,  266. 

Bonghi,  213. 

Booth,  Hon.  Henry,  174. 

Born,  Helena,  42. 

Boston,  119, 135,  168, 183,  267,  310,  337. 

Bovee,  Mrs.,  457. 

Bowles,  Kev.  Ada  C,  10,  24,  49,  50,  448,  449; 
Address,  Women  in  the  Ministry,  180-181. 

Bowring.  20. 

Boycott,  156. 

Boyeson,  Mr.,  207. 

Boyle,  Mrs.  H.,  183. 

Boyve,  M.  de,  152. 

Bradford,  Mrs.  Cornelia,  168;  Attorney-Gen- 
eral (Kansas),  317. 

Bradwell.  Myra,  175,  176. 

Brain  weights  compared.    (See  Brain,  Sex  in  ) 

Brain,  Sex  in,  by  Helen  Gardener,  369-382. 

Brandes,  Dr.,  393. 

Brazil,  179. 

Bremer,  Fredrika,  389. 

Brent,  Margaret,  173. 

"  Bridge  of  Siirhs,"  270. 

Briggs,  Mrs.    (See  Olivia.) 

Bright,  .lolm,  11,1 15;  Jacob,  9,  384;  Mrs.  Jacob 
(Ursula),  9,  41,  233,  286,  453. 

Bristol,  Mrs.  Augusta  Cooper,  141,  458. 

British  National  Society  for  Women's  Suf- 
frage, 447. 

Brooks,  Mrs.  Harriet  S.,  458. 

Brown*  Kev.  Antoinette.    (See  Blackwell.) 

Brown,  Martha  McLellan,  12, 16, 246;  Address, 
Institutive  Power,  80-82;  Dr.  Charlotte  B., 
43. 

Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett,  33, 113. 

Bruce,  Rosalie,  42. 

Buell,  Mrs.  Caroline  B.,  458. 

Buenos  Ayres,  282. 

Bulletin  Continental,  255. 

Bunsen,  Baron  de,  259. 

Bunting,  Percy  WMiam,  290. 

Bureau  of  Statistics,  National,  135. 

Burke,  Edmund,  145. 

Burlingame,  Letit  a  L.,  176. 

Burleigh,  Charles  C,  36. 

Burnett,  Dr  Mary  Weeks,  13, 49;  Address,  The 
Temperance  Hospital,  123-125. 

Burtis,  Sarah  Anthony,  17,  327. 

Bushnell,  Mrs.  Elvira,  465, 

Butler,  Mrs.  Josephne,  40,  234,  252,  253,  286, 
422,  453;  Letter  of,  257-264. 

Byer-",  Mrs.  446, 

Byron,  378  ;  Brain  of,  380. 


Calcutta,  262. 

California,  174, 175,  262;  Greeting  from,  43. 

Call,  The,  of  the  International  Council,  10-11, 

447. 
Calvin,  404. 
Campbell  Mrs.  Helen,  14;   Paper,  Women  in 

the  Trades,  146-151. 
Canada,  30,  46,  116, 124,  384. 
Canadian  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  447. 
Cantb,  Mrs.  Minna,  390,  391,458. 
Carlile,  Mrs.,  445. 


Carlisle,  Bishop,  406. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  136. 

Carnot,  President  and  Madame  (of  France). 
453. 

Carolina.    (See  North  C.  and  South  C.) 

Carpenter,  Mary,  258. 

Carse,  Mrs.  Matilda  B.,  13,  14;  Temperance 
Temple,  125-127  ;  Woman  and  Finance,  186- 
188 

Carthage,  268. 

Cary,  Alice,  367  ;  Samuel,  338. 

Casse,  Mrs.  2<>3.  . 

Censor,  The,  168.  C^™"" 

Century,  The,  432.  v 

Chace,  Elizabeth  Buffum,  338,  356 ;  Sketch  of 
Abby  Kelley,  364-366. 

Chadwick,  John  W.,  19,  357. 

Chadz,  Mrs.  Augusta,  183. 

( 'handler,  Mrs.  Lucinda  B.,  Paper  on  Marriage 
Reform,  284-286. 

Channing,  William  Henry,  36. 

Chant,  Mrs.  Laura  Armiston,  16,17,  40,  44,45. 
49,  50,  288,  344,  369,  449  ;  Address  on  Social 
Purity,  264-271. 

Chapman,  Maria  Weston,  338, 362. 

Charitable  Associations,  10. 

Cheney,  Mrs.  Edna  D.,  13,  17,  448,454;  Re- 
port, New  England  Hospital  for  Women  and 
Children.  i»r» -08;  Address  in  Religious  Sym- 
posium, 420-421. 

Chicago,  119,  125,  155, 174,  255. 

Child,  Lydia  Maria,  36,  337,  338,  362. 

Children,  In  the  Mines,  247-;  In  Factories,  7  56  ; 
Mothers'  Right  to.  in  America,  227  ;  In  En- 
gland, 233 ;  How  to  Reach  the,  by  Anna  Gor- 
don, 118-119. 

Childs,  George  W.,  455. 

Christian  Woman's  Board  of  Missions,  Report* 
459-460. 

Christiani,  Mrs  ,  203 

Christiania,  203,  279. 

Church,  10;  Early  Christian,  Woman  in  the* 
400-407. 

Cincinnati,  255. 

Clark,  Mrs.  Helen  Bright,  9,  41,42;  Lucretia 
Kendall,  289;  Emi'y,360. 

Clav,  Cassius  M.,  457. 

Cleveland,  339. 

Cleveland,  President,  225,  257 ;  Mrs.  Frances- 
F.,  225.  245.  257. 

Close  of  the  Council,  18,  425-438. 

Closing  Address.    (S  e  Mrs.  Stanton.) 

Clubs,  Women's,  217-218  ;  New  England,  225  ;. 
New  Century  (Philadelphia),  218. 

Cobbe,  Frances  Power,  137. 

Cobden,  Miss  Jane,  Letter  of,  446. 

Co- Education,  12,  53,  57,  59,  209  ;  Dean  Mich- 
aels on,  75-77. 

Colby,  Mrs.  Clara  B.,  188,  350,  357,  448,455,. 
457 ;  Maria,  42. 

Cold,  Mr.,  207. 

Cole,  Catharine.    (See  Field,  Martha  R.) 

Collalto,  Count  Massimo,  213,  214. 

Colleges,  Adelbert,  76, 77  ;  Bryn  Mawr,  12,  59, 
79;  Columbia,  218;  Harvard  (see  Universi- 
ties); Harvard  Annex,  59;  Hastings  College 
of  Law,  175 ;  Newnham,  80 ;  Oberlin,  59,. 
241,  331.  333,  338,  340;  Princeton,  74; 
Smith,  59;  Union  College  of  Law,  174, 175, 
176  ;  Vassar,  59  ;  Welle«ley,  59,  60 ;  Wes- 
leyan  Female,  12,  80;  Woman's  (of  North- 
western University),  12.    (See  Medical.) 

Collegiate  Instruction  of  Women,  Society  for 
the,  447. 

College  Fellowships  for  Women,  by  Miss  Cora 
Benneson,  12,  77-80. 

Collett,  Camilla,  278. 

Collins,  Emily  P.,  17,  352. 

Colman,  Lucy  N.,  356 ;  Letter  of,  359. 


Index. 


463 


Colonies,  English,  200  ;  French,  260. 

Colombi,  Marches!,  210. 

Colorado,  157. 

Columbia,  District  of,  128,  174. 

Committee  of  Arrangements,  Report  of,  14  , , 
458. 

Commons,  House  of,  230,  237,  25S,  384,  385, 
386. 

commonwealth,  Topeka.  864. 

Common  Law.  The,  227,  220,  242. 

Commune,  The  French,  436. 

Communists,  164,  486. 

Conference  of  the  Pioneers,  17,  322-368. 

Congress,  18  I.  206. 

Congregational  Ministers,  Association  of ,  333. 

Congregational  Women's  Missionary  Societies, 
447. 

Connecticut,  131,  134,  174;  Constitution  of, 
296. 

Consolidation  of  Workshops  Act,  Effect  of,  on 
Women,  230. 

Constantinople,  Synod  of,  404. 

Constitution,  American,  348,  382,  386,  432, 
135  (see  Amendments);  of  England,  382; 
Sub-committee  on,  440. 

Constitutional  Rights  of  Women  in  the  United 
states,  by  Isabella  Beecher  Hooker,  16,  292- 
S04. 

Contagious  Diseases  Acts,  23 1, 252  ;  Repeal  of, 
•JO.-,. 

Contributor,  The,  108. 

Conventions.  (See  Woman  Suffrage,  Temper- 
ance, ctc.i 

Cook,  Mrs.  Helen  M.,  313,  314. 

Cooper,  Peter,  314:  Mis.  Sarah  B.,  12;  Paper 
on  Kindergarten  Work.  67-1  2. 

Co-operation,  158,  155;  Statistics  of,  152:  Ad- 
dress of  Mrs.  lata  Harney  Sayles.  152-153. 

Co-operative  News  of  America,  The,  152. 

Co-operators,  Annual  Congress  of,  152. 

Coppino,  213. 

Copenhagen.  201,  205,  206,  207. 

Corinne,  105. 

Cornelia,  181. 

Cost  of  Council,  10,  454,  455;  of  Temperance 
Temple.  125. 

Couzins,  Miss  Pluebe  W.,  174, 175,  256. 

Courtney,  Leonard,  384. 

Uourant,  The  Hartford,  168. 

Court  of  <  lainis,  175. 

Council  of  Women,  The  International,  9,  62, 
94,  130,152.  171.  170.  101.  105,  214.223,  224, 
250,  257.  202.274,  330,  831,  345,356,  .557, 
358,  359,  360,  364,  366,  400,  402,424.425. 
426,  428,  120.  181,  132,  133,  188,  141,442, 
443,  444,  446,  1  17.  448,  449,  457,  45s.  160  ; 
(alitor,  9-10,  447  :  Appeal,  447;  Details  of 
Preparation,  45 1 ;  <  lommlttees  of,  456. 

Councils,  Permanent,  National  and  interna- 
tional, 425,440;  Constitutions  of ,  450  152; 
Officers  of,  152,  453;  Recommendations, 
452. 

Cox,  Mrs.  A.  L.,  361. 

Crandall.  Prudence,  337,  356. 

Club,  The  Hluestocking,  215. 

Crispi,  Signor,  213. 

Croly.  Mrs.  Jennie  C,  15,  50,  224,  354;  Ad- 
dress on  Clubs.  217-218. 

Crook,  Mr.  and  Mrs..  0. 

Cromwell.  Brain  of,  378,  380,  381. 

Crouch,  Mary,  168. 

Crown  Princess  of  Denmark.    (See  Louise.) 

Crudelli,  Tommaso.  213. 

Crusade,  A  New,  by  Elizabeth  Boynton  Har- 
bert,  210-218. 

Cuba,  202, 

Curtis,  Lucy  W.,  455. 

Custody  of  In 'ants  Act.  234. 

Cuvier,  Brain  of,  370,  378,  380,  381. 


D. 

Dakota,  157. 

Dall,  Caroline  H.,  17, 18,  415. 

Danish  Women's  Association,  15,  50,  203-206. 

Danish  Women's  Society  for  the  Protection  of 
Young  Girls,  15,  50 ;  Report  of,  200-203. 

Dante,  378. 

Darlington,  229. 

David,  Louise,  444  _ 

Davis,  Paulina  Wright,  36,  360 ;  Edward  M., 
36. 

Deborah,  404. 

De  Foresta,  213. 

Delaware,  131,  256. 

Delegates  of  the  Council,  Meetings— First,  448; 
Second,  449  :  Third,  449  ;  Fourth,  453 ;  Fifth, 
15  1. 

Democratic  Party,  307,  309  ;  Democrats,  319. 

Denmark,  30,  32,  179,  200,  207,  259,  393,  394 ; 
Woman's  Rights  in,  303-394  ;  Women's  Edu- 
cation, 206-207 ;  Woman's  Association,  207K»^ 
2i  i(>:  Women's  Union  for  Protection  of  Young  1 
Girls,  200-203.  / 

Dennisou,  388.  -    » 

Depretis,  213. 

Deraismes,  Maria,  90,  444. 

De  Sanctis,  213. 

De  Stael,  Madame,  33. 

Den' sch- Amerikaner,  JJer,  188. 

Deyo,  Rev.  Amanda,  11,  10. 

Diaz.  Mrs.  Abby  Morton,  15,50,  223;  Report 
on  Industrial  and  Educational  Unions,  198- 
2i  K ). 

Dickens,  Charles,  161. 

Dickinson,  Anna,  133,  134,  256,  339;  Mrs., 
310. 

Dlehl,  Mrs.  Anna  Randall,  313. 

Diggs,  Mrs.  Anna  L.,  457. 

Dilke,  Mrs.  Ashton  (Margaret),  17,  40,  44,  45, 
40.  50,  236,  237,  440  :  Address,  Woman  Suf- 
frage in  England,  382  388. 

Diotime,  165,  181. 

Disabilities  of  Women,  Legal,  15  ;  Address  by 
Mrs.  L.  D.  Blake,  227  220. 

Divorce,  In  America,  227  ;  England,  235  ;  In- 
dians, 239. 

Douglass,  Frederick,  47,  323,  324,  352 ;  Remi- 
niscences of,  327-331. 

Dover,  264. 

Dow,  Neal,  342 ;  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Gray,  159,  455. 

Dows,  Baron,  232. 

Draper,  Mrs.  Margaret,  168. 

Drummond,  James,  21, 

Dublin,  9 ;  Greeting  from,  42-43. 

Dumas,  Alexandre,  440. 

Duniway,  Mrs.  Abigail  Scott,  Letter  of,  442. 

Dunn.  Julia  Mills,  19, 

Dye,  Mary,  457. 

Dyer,  Alfred  S.,  255,  260. 

E. 

Eastern  Star,  Order  of,  447. 

Eastman,  Mary  F.,  15,  49,50,222,  448,  449; 
Address  on  Organization,  195-198. 

Edinburgh,  9 ;  Branch  of  the  Federation  for 
the  Repeal  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice,  49. 

Edson,  Dr.  Susan  A.,  17,  256,  352. 

Edmundson,  Mary,  42. 

Education— College  Fellowships forWomen, 12, 
77-80 ;  Higher  Education  for  Women  in  the 
United  States,  12,  51-63;  Retrospection,  12, 
72-75 ;  Scholarships,  77 ;  State  Appropria- 
tions, 59 ;  Statistics,  52,  56,  57,  58,  59,  60,  74, 
208,  209. 

Education  of  Women  in  Denmark,  206-207; 
England,  171;  Finland,  389-391;  France, 
171 ;  India,  63-67  ;  Italy,  208,  209,  210,  211  ; 
Russia,  439 ;  Switzerland,  171 ;  United  States, 
51-63. 


464 


International  Council  of  Women. 


Education-  President  James  B.  Angell,  73  ; 
William  Ellery  Channing,  73;  Mark  Hopkins, 
73 ;  Mrs.  Seager,  73  ;  Henry  W.  Sage,  73 ; 
Matthew  Vassar,  59,  73. 

Education— "Female,"  51,52;  Moral  R°form, 
258 ;  Objectors  to  Higher  Education  of 
Women,  53,  51;  Deterioration  in  Schools,  167. 
(See  Co-education,  Colleges,  Educational  In- 
stitutions, Kindergartens,  Medical  Colleges, 
Universities,  etc.) 

Educational  Institutions  for  Women— Brad- 
ford Academy,  58 ;  Friends  School  at  Wil- 
mington, 52 ;  Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary, 
73;  Maine  Wesleyan  Seminarv  and  Female 
College,  53;  Lane  Seminary,  350;  Institutions 
in  Boston,  52 ;  Troy  Female  Seminary,  53 ; 
University  Examinations.  5:5;  Correspond- 
ence Societies.  5:3  ;  The  "  Female  Seminary," 
52,  5:5 ;  Normal  Schools.  52,  57,  58. 

Egypt,  101,  260,  20s.  307,  308. 

Ehrenrooth,  Miss.  389,  391, 

Eliot,  George.  33,  68,  1  l'.t ;  Dr.  William  G.,  255. 

Elliot,  President,  107 

Elmy,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Wolston,  233,  234,  286, 
453. 

Enforcement  Act  of  1870,  301. 

England.  9,39,41,  12.  130,  152,  171.  1*0,  208, 
232,  234,  236,  •-'55.  250.  257.  258,259,262, 
264,  2<>5,  268,  382,  383,  885,  :;s<;.  ;;s7.  388, 
426,  138,  1  18,  111.  1  Hi. 

"  England  to  America,"  Poem  by  L.  Ormiston 
Chant.  271. 

Eric,  134. 

Ernst,  Sarah  Otis.  338. 

Estlin,  Mary  A.,  12. 

Europe,  42,  125.  208,  25! t,  262.  343. 

Eve,  180. 

Everett,  Martha  A.,  16,  Hi;  Address  on  School 
Suffrage  in  Massachusetts,  300-311. 

Evreninova,  Miss,  177.  178. 

Excelsior.  392. 

Exponent,  The  Woman's,  108. 


Factory  Act  of  1874  (England),  230. 

Fau-chUd,  President,  341. 

Fales.  Mrs.  [mogene C,  152. 

I'ambri,  Paulo,  21  1. 

Family,  Law  in  the.  15,  211. 

Farmers,  Wives  and  Daughters,  130. 

tiirmer'g  Friend,  The,  l  to. 

Fanners,  Women  as.  by  Mrs.  Esther  L.  Warner, 

11.  156-159. 
Fa  vie,  Jules,- 259. 
Pawcett,  Mrs.  Millicent  Garrett,  291,  383,  453, 

158. 
Feddersen,  Mrs.  Astrid  Stampe,  204,  206. 
Federation  of    Labor  Unions.  Communication 

from,  163-164. 
Ferguson,  Eliza  < '.,  458. 
Fibiger,  Miss  Mathllde,  393. 
Field,  Mrs.  Martha  K..  1  1.  50,  1  10;  Address  of, 

181-183;  Dr.  Edna  It..  48. 
finance,  Women  and.    (See  Carse,  Matilda.) 
Finland,  30, 32,  205,  388,  389,  391,  392,425, 

lit;,    127;   Women's  Work  in  Finland.   388- 

392. 
Finnish  Women's  Union,  12,  15,  17,  40,  392. 
First  Woman's   Rights  Convention,  322,  323, 

324.    (See  "tanton,  B.  Cady.) 
Fletcher,   Miss  Alice,   15:    Address  on    Legal 

Conditions  of  Indian  Wome  ■,  237-241. 
Florence,  209. 
Folkstone,  267. 

Folliero  de  Luna.  Aurelia,  214. 
'Foltz,  Clara  S..  175. 
Ford,  Isabella  0.,  458. 
Formal  Opening  of  the  Council,  12,  30-50. 
Forney,  Colonel  John  W.,  139. 


Foster,  Mrs.  Judith   Ellen.   13,  16,   110,  177; 

Address  of,    304-306;    Julia    T.,    155,    150; 

Stephen  S..  365  :  Kaehel  G  ,  9, 10, 11,  50,  225. 

350,351,448,449,453,455,  156,  157. 
France,  0,  30,  32.  89,  90,  146,  178,  180,  234, 

238,  25! t.  :;ss,  438,  I  13. 
Franco-German  War,  105. 
Franchises  in  England,  386,  387. 
Franklin,  Mrs.  Christine  Ladd,  70. 
Fraser,  Lord,  231. 
Frazar,  Mrs.  Caroline  M.  S.,  16,  50 ;  Report  of, 

272 
Frederiksen,  Mrs.  Ada  Monrad,  12, 15,  50,  217; 

Paper  on  Education  of  Women  in  Denmark, 

206-21  >7 . 
Frederiksen,   Miss    Kirstine,  458 ;    Report    of 

Danish     Woman's     Association,     203-206; 

Woman's  Rights  in  Denmark.  393-3!)  1. 
Freewill  Baptist  Missionary  Society  (Woman's) 

15,49,200. 
Fremont,  Jessie  Benton,  339 ;  John  C,  319. 
French  Woman's  Union  for  the  Care  of  the 

Wounded,  49. 
Friederici,  J.,  219. 
Friends  of  Young  Girls,   International  Union 

of  the.  1  17. 
Fua  Fusinato,  Erminia,  209. 
Fuller.  Margaret  129.  168;  Sarah  E.,  102. 
Fund.  Mutual  Relief,  220. 


Gabba,  213. 

Gage,  Frances  D.  (Aunt  Fanny),  17,36,339, 

357,   300;    Mrs.   Matilda   Josiyn,   11.   15.   17. 

is.    is.  189,  241.  356,  456;  Reminiscences, 

347;  woman  in  the  Early  Christian  Church, 

400-407. 
Gains,  Industrial,  181-153. 
Galllmore,  Dr.  Elizibeth.  43. 
(iambetta,  378. 
Gardner,  Anna,  17,  22. 
Gardener,  Helen,  17,431  ;  Sex  in  Brain,  369- 

382. 
Garneld,  Eliza  Ballou,  459. 
Garibaldi,  259. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  36,  331,  337,  347. 
Grand  Army  of  the   Republic,  Woman's  Re- 
lict Corps  of  the,  13,  19.  101-103. 
G.  A.  R.,  Ladies  of  the,  13.   11),  ss. 
Gaspar  n.  Count  and  Countess  Agenor  de.  259. 
Gay,  Elizabeth  Neal,  322. 
Oaztt.e,  Wyandotte,  30 1. 
Gazeli  ,  'fin.  168;  Virginia,  183. 
Georgia,  128,  131. 
George,  Henry,  111,  308. 
Genoa,  211.  • 

" Gentleman's' Day  "  atSorosiS.  215. 
German  Women's  Union,  2l!>,  1 17. 
Germany,  32,  48,  1  16,  151,  153,  208,  218,  259, 

202.  888,  394,    138;  The  Woman  Movement 

in,  219,  220. 
Gibbons,  Abby  Hopper,  255,  356. 
GUI,  It.  C.  135. 
Ginuins,  Madame  de.  201. 
Girl  Pursued  by  Police.  Incident  of,  201,  205. 
Gladstone,  WlIQam  P.,  37,  384. 
Gledstone,  ttev.  J.  P..  255. 
Gnostics,  The,  102. 
Goddarri,  Mary  K..  168, 
(iixhi/'s  hadietf  Look,  35  1 
Go'dschmidt,  Henriette,  219. 
Gougar,  Mrs.  Helen   M.,   175,   399,  456,   457, 

458. 
Gordon,  Anna,  13  ;  Address,  How  to  Reach  the 

Children,  118-119;  la  ira  de  Force,  175. 
Grange.  The,   137;    Woman   in   the    (by  Mrs. 

Worden),  14,  137-142;    Reading  Circles  of, 

140 
Gray,  Mary  T.,  356  ;  Letter  of,  363-361. 


Index. 


465 


Great  Britain,  32, 1  52,  133,  255,  257,  304. 

Greece,  190, 191,  268. 

Greenwood,    Grace.     (See    Lippincott,     Mrs. 

Sarah.) 
Greeley,  Horace,  1(58,  350. 
Green,  Mrs.  Ann  K.,  108. 
Greetings  and  Letters,  12,  39-43. 
Gregory  of  Nyassa,  104. 
Grenlell,  Alice.  42. 
GreybeiJ,  Miss  Mary,  469. 
Grew,  Miss  Mary,   17,  322,  338,  3  47,  356,  361  ; 

Reminiscences  of,  34  1-3 1<>. 
Griess-Trant,  M..  444. 
Gritting,  Josephine,  36. 
Gripenberg,  Alexandra,  12,15,17,44,  lit.  50, 

1  is  :  Woman's  Work  in  Finland,  388-392. 
Grimaldi,  213. 
Grimke,  Angelina,  132, 189,  331,  333,  337,  354, 

360,  361,  362;  Sarah,  331,333,337,  354,360, 

861,  362. 
Groth,  Sophia  Magelsson,  16,44,49,427.  149; 

Paper  on  Women's  Position  in  Norway,  278- 

28  1 
Grove,  Mr.,  207. 
Grundtvig,   Bishop  (N.  F.  S.),  204,205,207; 

Miss  Elizabeth,  205. 
Guardian,  The,  168. 

Gustalson,  Mrs.  Zadel  B„  IT.  46,  50,  449;  Ad- 
dress of,  394-398. 
Guyot,  M.,  416. 

H. 
Haddock,  Emma,  175. 
Hagman,  Miss.  391 . 
Hale,  Kcv.  Edward  Everett,  196,  221. 
Halk.jer,  Mrs.  Julia,  200. 
Hall,  Miss  C.  A.,  138. 
Halton.  117. 

HalloweU,  Mary  H.,  17,327. 
Hamburg,  262. 
Hammond,   Dr.  Wm.  A.,  369,  374,  375.  378, 

379,380.381. 
Hanaford,  Key.  Phoebe  A..  10,  24. 

Hanson,  Mrs.,  200;  Miss  Ida  Falbe,  204. 

Harbert,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Boynton,  16,  18,21, 
23,  SO,  157;  God  is  Love,   U5-418;  a  New 

Crusade.  '-MO  248. 

Harberton.  Lady  r.  W.,468, 

Haroourt,  Sir  William.  384. 

Harper,  Mrs.  Prances  E.  W.,18;  TheNeglected 
Rich.  110-120. 

Harrah,  Kev.C.  C,  23. 

Baslam,  Mrs.  Anna  Maria,  9,  12.   115. 

Hawaiian  Kingdom.  170. 

Heikel,  Miss  Koeina   300. 

Heine,  Heinrich,  1  10. 

Helena,  Empress,  ISO. 

Helmer,  Bessie  Brad  well,  176. 

Helsingfore,  389.  392. 

Herrick,  Elizabeth,  247. 

Herring,  Mrs.  C.  V..  ill. 

Higginson.  T.  W..  335,  356;  Letter  of.  367. 

Higher  Education  of  Women,  Society  for  the, 
417. 

Hills.  Manila  M..  15,  IT.  40,  422;  Report  of 
Free  Baptist  Missions,  200. 

Hill.  Sir  Roland,  1  Hi. 

History  of  Woman  Suffrage.  (See  Woman  Suf- 
frage.) 

Hitchcock.  Almeda  E.,  177. 

Hoffman,  Clara  Cleghorne,  16.  40.  148;  Ad- 
dress on  Social  Purity,  283-284. 

Hoghro,  Mr.  Svend,  204. 

Holland.  259,  394. 

Holyoake,  George  Jacob,  152,  153. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  195. 

Holt,  Mrs.  Mary,  168. 

Holy  Week.  421. 

Holloway,  Laura  C,  14  ;  Address,  167-160. 


Homes,  Woman's  Industrial  (Salt  Lake  City), 
352  ;  Servants',  201,  202,  203. 

"  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  13,  21,  128. 

Hong-Kong,  262. 

Hooker,  Isabella  Beecher,  15,  16,  18,  189,  400, 
421;  Religious  Creed,  418-420;  Constitu- 
tional Rights  of  Women  in  the  United  States, 
292-304. 

Hopper,  Jsaac  T.,  356. 

Hospitals,  National  Temperance,  123-125; 
London  Temperance,  124 ;  Women  Physi- 
cians in,  172  ;  For  the  Insane,  1T2  ;  Managed 
by  Women,  95-98.    (See  Cheney,  Ednah  D.) 

Ho8> rap,  Jens,  898;  C,  205. 

Hosmer,  Harriet,  130. 

Howe,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward,  15,  18,  4T,  48,  40,  223, 
254,  420,  4  48;  The  Power  of  Organization, 
189-105. 

Howell,  Mary  Seymour,  45T. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  153. 

Hugo,  Victor,  80,  180,  259. 

Hungary.  180.  259. 

Huling,  Caroline.  35T. 

Humbert,  Professor.  254,  259,  260. 

Humboldt,  William  vim,  311. 

Hunt,  Mrs.  Mary  H.,  13,  425;  Our  Reasons, 
127-128;  Mrs.  Jane,  322;  Judge,  298,  299, 

.•urn,  301,  ••:(>;. 

Hutchinson,  John  W.,  IT,  32T,  334,  356,  357  ; 

Original  Song,  326 
Husbandry,  Patroift  of.    (See  Grange  ) 
Hubs,  John,  40  I. 

Huxley,  Professor,  1T3. 

Hyde  Park  Demonstration,  265. 

Hypatia,  165. 


Ibsen,  Henrik,  2T8,  2T9,  393. 

Idaho, 112. 

Independence,  Declaration  of,  39,  183,  294, 
805,  323,336,  346,  132. 

India.  30,  32,  II,  96,  126,388.  150;  Bombay, 
(!  1,  07;  Calcutta,  6  1.  07;  English  Government 
in,  66;  Education  of  Women.  63-67;  Hyder- 
abad Sum,  07;  Lahore,  97 ;  Madras,  64,67; 
Prostitution  in,  260. 

Indian  Association,  Woman's  National,  49; 
Report  by  Mrs.  Ouinton,  100-101. 

Indian  Women,  Legal  Condition  of,  237-241. 

Indiana,  325. 

Indianapolis.  220,  147. 

Indians,  KM)  KM. 

Industrial  Gains,  Woman's,  by  Mary  Liver- 
more,  131-137. 

Industrial,  Associations,  1<>;  School,  16. 

Industries,  14,  129-164;  Statistics,  135  ;  Vari- 
ous, open  to  Women,  129,  ISO,  184.  135; 
W  men  in  Factories,  150;  Wages  of  Women, 
129,  138,  1  17.  1  Is,  150,  151,  15  1  ;  Women  In 
Trades,  146-152. 

Industry  and  Art.  Female  I  nstitute  of,  203. 

International  Council  of  Women.  (-?ee  Coun- 
cil.. 

International  Association  of  Friends  of  Girls, 
2(>2:  Federation  for  the  Abolition  of  State 
Regulation  of  Vice,  254. 

Iowa.  17  1,  175,  227. 

Illinois.  1  ,  1. 

1  in; a  I  Is.  Senator  J.  J.,  on  Woman  Suffrage,  317, 
318  ;  Olive  Frazer,  IT. 

Insane.     (See  Hospitals.) 

Institutions,  Women  as  Physicians  in,  1T2. 

Institut  ve  Power,  by  Martha  McLellan 
Brown,  12,  80-82. 

Ireland,  9, 30,  232,  444. 

tele  of  Man,  384. 

Italy,  15,  32.  151,  153,200,  259,  262,  388  ;  Wo- 
man's Condition  in,  by  Signora  Salazaro, 
208-214. 


466 


International  Council  of  Women. 


j. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  356;  Francis,  337  ;  Jane' to, 
17  ;  Dr.  James  C  ,  356  ;  Letter  of  Dr.  James, 
364. 

Jamaica,  459. 

Janeiro,  Rio  fie,  262. 

Japan,  114,  115,  126,  459. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  292,  336. 

Jeffersonian  Democrats,  308. 

Jeunes  Filles,  Union  dee  Amies  des,  203. 

Jewett,  Sarah  Mary,  42. 

Joan  d'Arc,  134. 

Johns,  Mrs.  Laura  M.,  14,16,350,456,457; 
Address,  Municipal  Suffrage  in  Kansas,  315- 

Johnson,  Oliver,  356;  Letter  of,  366-367. 
Journalism,  Woman  in,  by  Marion  McBride, 

183-184 ;  Woman  in  Journalism,  by  Laura  (  . 

Holloway,  167-169. 
Journal,  The  (New  York),  168. 
Julian,  Hon.  George  W.,  356  ;  Letter  of,  362. 
June,  Jennie.    (See  Croly,  Mrs.  > 
Jury  in  Susan  B.  Anthony's  Trial,  299,  300. 
Justin,  402. 
Justitia,  357. 

K. 

Kalevala,  388. 

Kansas,  129,  130, 157.  17  1,  175,  225,  227.  251, 
266,  336,  348,  363,  364  ;  Equal  Suffrage  As- 
sociation, 14,  315. 

Karr,  Hon.  A.  G.,  175. 

Keefer,  Mrs.  Bessie  Starr,  13,46,49,50,449; 
Address  of,  116-118. 

Kelley,  (Foster)  Abby,  132,  331,  332,  333,  338, 
347,  354  ;  Sketch  of,  by  Mrs.  Chace,  364-366. 

Kemp,  Dr.  Agnes,  458. 

Kempin,  Frau  Dr.  E.,  177, 179. 

Kennan,  Judge,  432. 

Kilgore,  Carrie  Burnham,  175. 

Kimball,  Mrs.  M.  P.,  140,  141. 

Kimber,  Abby,  322. 

Kimberly,  Mrs.  Sherman,  141. 

Kindergarten,  12,198;  In  its  Development  of 
Faculty,  by  M  is.  (  oopcr,  67-72  ;  Mrs.  Leland 
Stanford,  70. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  137,  109, 171. 

Kirkland,  Miss  Eliza,  458. 

Klein,  Mr.,  203. 

Knights  of  Labor,  14,  50,  163  ;  What  they  are 
Doing  for  Women,  by  Mrs.  Barry,  153-156; 
by  Hulda  B.  Loud,  143-1  16. 

Knowles,  Mrs.  Cordie  B.,  48;  Report  of  Chris- 
tian Woman's  Board  of  Missions,  459-460. 

Kvlrutan  og  Sornfundet,  204. 

Kowalevski,  Professor  Sonja,  458. 

Krebs,  Miss  Johanna,  168. 

Krog,  MissGina,  43,  280. 

Kropotkin,  Prince  Pierre,  432  ;  Letter  of,  438- 
441. 

L. 

La  Cornelia,  214. 

La  Donna,  214. 

Le  Karon,  Marie,  394. 

Labor,  Organizations,  146  ;  Question,  146  ;  Sta- 
tistics, 130, 161  (see  Knights  of  Labor) ;  Labor 
Party.  309. 

Lamb,  Charles,  303. 

1  amont,  Secretary,  224 

Laodicea,  Council  of.  404. 

Lapland,  401. 

Laveleye,  M.  Emile  de,  254,  259. 

Lausanne,  International  Congress  at,  201. 

Law,  Women  in,  by  Mrs.  Bitten iiender,  173- 
179 ;  Law  n\  the  Family,  241. 

Lazare,  St.  (Prison),  13,  49,  90,  92,  93,  94  ;  Re- 
port by  Madame  Bogelot,  90-91. 

Lecky,  252. 


Lee.  Rev.  Luther,  340  ;  Sister  of  Robert,  331. 

Leeds,  152,258. 

Leffler,  Mrs.  Anna  Charlotte  Edgren,  468. 

Legal  Conditions  of  Women,  226-2  15  ;  In  Italy, 
212,213;  Among  the  Indians,  •±:\~  •  In  the 
Three  Kingdoms,  229-237  ;  In  Finland,  388, 
389  ;  In  the  United  States,  22(5-229. 

Legal  Disabilities  of  Women,  by  Lillie  Deve- 
reux  Blake,  226-228. 

Legalized  Vice,  252,  253,  254.  255,  202;  In 
Norway,  282;  In  Italy,  212,  213. 

Legions,  Loyal  Temperance,  118, 125. 

Leipzig:,  219. 

Leslie,  Mrs.  Frank,  184;  Letter  of,  442-443. 
Liberal  Associations  in  England,  Women's,  15, 

17,  40,42,  46,  5().  304,  382. 
Lidgett,  Elizabeth,  S.,  291. 
Liberator,  'J'lie,  337. 
Liberal  Unionists,  384. 
Lily,  The,  356,  360. 
Linnaeus,  401. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  on  Woman  Suffrage,  338. 
Lippencott,  Mrs.  Sarah  (Grace  Greenwood),  17; 

Reminiscences  of,  353-355 
Livermore,  Mary  A.,  14,  19. 184,418,448  ;  Ad. 

dress,  Woman's  Industrial  Gains  during  the 

Last  Half-Century.  131-137. 
Liverpool,  9,  32. 
Loefgren,  Mrs.  Betty,  391,  458. 
Loeken,  Mrs.   Antonie,  458 ;  Miss  Olany,  458. 
Lockwood,  Mrs.  Belva  A.,  175;  Mis.  Mary  8., 

155,   1 56, 
London,  9,  149,  150,  151,  166,  183,255,  266, 

355. 

Longfellow,  Samuel,  20,  22,  too,  424, 

Longshore,  Dr.  Hannah,  17,41,352,356,363. 

Lord,  Fiances,  41. 

Lords,  House  of.  266,  385. 

Loud.  Miss  Hulda  15..  14,  142, 163  ;  Address  on 

Knights  of  Labor,  143-1  10. 
Louise,  Queen  of  Prussia,  305;  Crown  Princess 

of  Denmark,  203,  206  453;  Letter  of ,  216. 
Louisiana,  131,  158.  458. 
Lowell.  James  Russell,  160  237. 
Lou;  ll  Offering,  'The,  160.  101,  162,468. 
Lowry,  Dr.  Isabella  and  Dr.  Agnes,  13. 
Loyal  League,  189. 
Lozier,  Dr.  Clemence  S.,  17,  356. 
Luca<.  Mrs.  Margaret  Bright,  9,  41,  115. 
Luther,  Martin,  129,  404. 
Lussana,  213. 

M. 

McBride,  Marion,  14;  Paper  on    Journalism, 

183-184. 
McClintock,  Elizabeth,  322;  Mrs.  Mary  Ann, 

322. 
McDonnell,  Mrs.  Mary,  46.  49,  449. 
McDowell,  Rose,  42. 
McLaren,  Pris  ilia  Bright  (Mrs.  Duncan),  44, 

286, 3  1 1.  153  ;  Letter  of,  39-41  ;  Mr.  and  Mrs. 

Charles,  9;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walter,  9. 
McNeir,  Mrs.  Laura,  13,  49;  Address  of ,  88-89. 
McPherson,  Mary  E.,  456. 
Macon,  Council  of,  405. 
Mackay,  343. 
Madonna,  126. 
Madias.  206. 

Magellan.  Straits  of,  262. 
Mahan,  President,  341. 
Maine,  131,  154,  174. 
Mallet,  from  Louisiana,  The,  458. 
Manchester,  9. 
Mancini,  210. 
Mann.  Charlotte  Joy,  17. 
Mansfield,  Arabella  A.,  174. 
Marble,  Mrs.  Ellen  A.,  16,  318. 
Marcellina,  403. 


Index. 


467 


Mark  Twain,  381. 

Married  Women's  Property— In  America,  220, 
228;  In  England, 231. 

Maryland,  131.  173. 

Mason,  Agnes,  13. 

Martin,  E.  W.,  138  ;  Ellen  A.,  174. 

Martineau,  Harrier,  134,  161,  258,  338,  362. 

Massachusetts,  131,  134,  14  1.  160,  171.  244. 
309,  311,  32.-,.  381,  337,  357,  457  ;  School  Suf- 
frage Association,  16,  49. 

Matrons,  Police,  by  Mrs.  Barney,  120-123. 

Maxamilla,  404. 

May.  Miss  Abby  W.,  310 ;  Rev.  Samuel.  333. 

Mayflower,  The.  484. 

Mazzinl,  Joseph,  259. 

Medical  Journal,  British,  177. 

Medical  Colleges  (Admitting  Women),  of  Bos- 
ton University,  97;  Woman's,  of  Philadel- 
phia, 96,  i>7;  Geneva,  3  17. 

Medical  Associations.  169. 

Medicine,  Alcohol  as.  123.  124,  125;  Women 
in,  by  Dr.  Stevenson,  14,  169-173. 

Mendenhall,  Dinah.  17.  352. 

Merrick,  Mrs.  Caroline  E.,  49. 

Merritt,  Dr.  Emma  S..  43. 

Methodist  Women's  Missionary  Societies,  1  17. 

Mexico,  179,262. 

Meyerhelm,  Madam  Anderson,  115. 

Michaels,  Kena  A,  12,  14;  Address  on  Women 
as  Educators.  165-167;  Co-education,  75-77. 

Michigan,  17  I.  354. 

Milan,  210,  211. 

Milford,  242. 

Mill,  John  Stuart.  1  15,  165,  234,  335,  339,  384  ; 
Mrs.  John  Stuart.  393. 

Miller,  Associate  Justice.  175. 

Mini  s.  Children  in  the.  2  17. 

Ministry.  Women  in  the,  86,88;  Number  of, 
181  :  Address   by  Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles,  180- 

182. 

Ministerial  Conference.  Women's,  49. 
Minnesota.  1,1;  Woman  Suffrage  Association, 

16. 
Minneapolis.  31s. 
Minor,  Mrs.  Virginia  L.,  17,  256. 
Missionaries.  Medical,  171. 
Missionary.  Won  an  as,  by  Mrs.  Jennie  Fowler 

Willin-,  86  88;  Work,  by  Harriet  X.  Morris, 

88  100. 
Missionary  Helper,  The,  200. 
Mission  ry  '/'i>ti/>'/.<_  The,  460. 
Missions,  (  hristian  Woman's  Board  of,  49, 459- 

160. 
Mississippi  River,  262. 
Missouri,   17  1. 

Mitchell.  Professor  Maria,  166. 
Modern  Language  Association,  167. 
Mohl,  Mrs.  Aurelia  Hadlev,  14,50;  Address  of, 

184-186. 
Moleschott,  213. 
Monrad,  Bishop.  206.  393. 
Montana.  442,  159. 
Montevideo,  2<>2. 
Montgomery,  Jamc,  19,  20,  418. 
Moore,  Miss  H  becea,  !> ;  Mrs.  Margaret,  44. 
Moody,  Mr.,  407. 
Moral   Education    Society    of    Boston,   16,  50, 

272  ;  of  District  of  Columbia,  16. 
Moral  Law,  Identical  for  Both  Sexes,  250,  254, 

204,  270.  277. 
Morandi,  Felicita,  210. 
More,  Hannah,  51. 
Morelli,  213. 
Morgan,  Professor.  341. 

Morris.  Miss  Harriet  X.,  13;  Address,  Mission- 
ary Work,  90-100. 
Morsier.  Madame,  Emily  de,  90,  261. 
Morselli,  379. 
Morton,  Dr.  i  auline,  352. 


Temperance- 


Monnonism.  29(1. 

Mount  Vernon,  339. 

Moschus,  John,  404. 

Moscow,  202. 

Mother  Instinct.  245. 

Motherhood,  247  ;  of  God,  400. 

Mothers'  Right  to  Childreu— In  America,  227  :. 

In  England,  233.  234. 
Mott,  James,  324,  335  ;  Lucretia,  30,  31.  36,. 

246,  322,  323,  324,  325,  338,  340,  347,  348, 

353,  354,  360,  863;  Her  Motto,  422;  Lydia, 

256;  Richard.  36 
Mullen,  Mary  M.,  183. 

Muller,  Henrietta,  9,  40, 41 ;  Mrs.  Marie,  40. 
Mulvany,  Isabella,  42. 
Municipal  Suffrage  for   Women— In    Belfast,. 

4  15;  England,  383;   Finland,  391;  Kansas' 

315-318. 
Mutual  Improvement  Association  (Utah),  108.. 

X. 
Xashville,  155. 
Xason.  Mary,  456. 
Xaples,  264. 
Napoleon,  305. 
N  iionalJSra,  The, 854. 
National  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  9,  10„ 

11.  12.  13,  15,  10.  18,  30,  31,  33.  188,  438,. 

11,,  45  1.  155,  456  ;  of  Massachusetts,  276. 
National  Vigilance  Association.  266. 
Xat  onal     Woman's     Christian     Te: 

Union.    (See  Wi niutn's,  etc.) 
Nebraska.  157.  159,  17  1. 
Xeera,  21(1. 

Netherlands,  The,  259. 
Newman,  Mrs.  J.  P.,  is,  loo. 

Xew  England   Hospital   for  Women  n"d  Chil- 
dren, 95,354,432.     (See  alsothe  Errata,  page 

Xew  Hampshire.  181,  13  1. 

Xew  Jersey,  131,  227,  339  ;  Women  Voting  in, 

330. 
Xew  Orleans,  131,  183,  185,  225,  202. 
Xew  York,  15.  52,  131,  132,  133,  146, 147, 148, 

149,152,155,   105,  107,   108,  174,  217,  255, 

266,  325,  337.435. 
Xew  Fork  Committee  for  Prevention  of  State 

Regu  ationof  Vice,  10,  252,  255. 
Xew  Mexico,   1  12. 
New  Paihs  (Seue  liahnen),  437. 
Newport,  437. 
News-Letter,  The,  168. 
Xeymann,  Mrs.  (lira,  17,168,  315;  Address,. 

Sent  inentalism  in  Politics,  896-399. 
Xie  iol.   Mrs.    Elizabeth    Pease,  9,  40,  41,264, 

34  1.  866  :  Letter  of.  857. 
Nichols,   ClHrin*    I.    H.,    30,    334.    350,   360; 

Sketch  of,  by  Mary  T.  Gray,  303-304. 
N'icholson.  Mrs.  Eliza  J.,  183, 
Xiel-on,  Mrs.  Ragna,  279,  458. 
Nightingale.  Florence,  25s. 
Nijni     ovgorod,  202. 
Nihilists,  164,  436. 

Nominations  for  Permanent  Councils,  Commit- 
tee on,  449. 
North  Carolina,  131,  171. 
Norway,  30.  32,  43,  178,  203,  205,217,  259, 

27s,  281,  427,  429. 
Norwegian  Woman's  Suffrage  Society,  43,  49* 
NyUunok,  280. 
Official  St  ttement  of  the  Council,  453,  454. 

0. 
Ohio,  171,  228,  325. 
"Old  Sal,"  121.  122. 
"Olivia,"  Gift  to  found  Woman's  College,  427, 

Ongelin,  Miss,  391. 

Order  of  the  Eastern  Star,  447. 

Oregon,  154, 174. 


468 


International  Council  of  Women. 


Organization  of  Permanent  Councils,  Commit- 
tee on,  449. 

Organization,  S  ssion  of,  180-225  ;  Power  of, 
by  Mrs.  Jul  a  Wan!  Howe,  15,  189-  195. 

"ORafferty,  Mistress,  on    the  Woman  Ques- 
tion," bv  Grace  Greenwood.  355. 

Origen,  402. 

<  )ile  ins,  Counc  1  of,  405. 

Orine,  Miss  Eliza,  9,  177. 

Ostler,  Mrs.  Alfred,  0. 

Our  Union,  186,  188. 

P. 

Paine,  Thomas,  145. 

Paley,  Archbishop,  415. 

Fall  Ma'l  Gazette,  265,  266. 

Palludan-Muller,  207. 

Palmer,  Senator  and  Mrs.  T.  W.,  458. 

Panama,  262. 

Paris,  9,  13(i,  151,  255,  440  ;  Council  of,  405. 

Parker,  Mrs.  Margaret  E.,  0,  41:   Theodore, 
380,385. 

Parliament,  English,  260,  384. 

Parnell,  Mr.,  305. 

Parsons,  Miss  E.,  456  ;  Henry  C,  455. 

Pastoral  Letter,  The,  387. 

Patents  Granted  to  Women,  135, 136. 

Peace  Union,  Universal,  49;  Woman's  Peace 
and  international  Arbitration  Society,  49. 

Pearce,  Martha  K.,  170. 

Peirce.  Sarah  H.,  17. 

Pennsylvania,   181,  154,  156,  175,  247,  331, 
336. 

Pericles,  180. 

Perovskaya,  Sophia,  439,  441. 

Persians,  The,  19 1. 

Peters,  Louise  Utto,  219. 

Petersburg,  St.,  l  <s 

Petitioners  for  Woman  Suffrage,  293. 

Pettiugiil,  Mrs.  E.  F.,  456. 

Phelps.  388. 

Philadelphia,  123, 133, 136, 168,218,255,  3  1 1, 
348. 

Philanthropies,  Session  of,  12,  83-109. 

Philips.  Mrs..  9. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  36,  2  17,  331,  335,  338,  342  ; 
Mrs.  Ann  Green,  822. 

Physicians,  Women  as,  171. 

Pioneers.    (See  Conference.) 

Pierantoni,  (ira/.ia,  21<>. 

Pierre,  Eugenie  Poronie,  41. 

Pierce,  Secretary  of  State,  212. 

Pierson,  Jane,  360.    • 

Pindar.  165. 

Pit  Brow  Women,  230. 

Plymouth  Bock,  434. 

Poet,  Lidia,  177,  178. 

Poland,  lso. 

Police  Matrons,  272.    (See  Matrons.) 

Political  Club  (Copenhagen),  447. 

Political  Conditions— 1st   Session  of,   16,  290- 
321  ;  2d  Session  of,  17,  300- 100. 

Political  Parties  and  Woman  Suffrage,  by  Har- 
riet H.  Robinson,  10,  306-809. 

Politics,  Sentinientalism  in,  by  Mrs.  Clara  Ney- 
mann,  17,  398-399. 

Pomeroy,  Hon.  Samuel  C,  17,  31^. 

Poor  Law  in  England,  383. 

Pope  Leo  XIH,  406. 

Popular  Set  nn-  Monthly,  196,  369,  380. 

Porter,  R  bert  P.,  13 

Portland,  122. 

Post,  Amy,  17,  327,  352. 

Potomac,  128. 

Poverty  of  Women,  170. 

Powderly,  Terence  V.,  153. 

Powell,  Mis.  Anna  Rice,  16,50:  Address,  250- 

257;  Miss  Mauri,  14,  173. 
Poyser,  Mrs.,  244. 

Press  Association,  Woman's  International,  14, 


50,  182;  Report  of,  183-18  1;  Woman's  Na- 
tional, 14.  50.   185;   Statistics  of,    184,  185, 

ISO. 

Preston,  Ann,  352. 

Pr  oe,  Rebecca  Newell,  42. 

Priestman,  Anna  and  Mary,  9,  11,  42. 

Primrose  League,  304,  385,  11,. 

Primaries.  The  (Utah),  108,  109. 

Prison  Work  in  Paris,  bv  Madame  Bogelot, 
90-94. 

Pr  fession«,  Session  of,  165-188. 

Pr  'gramme  of  the  Council,  11-28. 

Prohibition,  Movement  in  Great  Britain,  1  ,  ; 
Party  in  America,  308.  309. 

Prostitution.    (See  Legalized  Vice.) 

Protestant  Episcopal  Women's  Missionary  So- 
ciety, 447. 

Prot  stant  Prisons.  Work  in  the  (France),  447. 

Protection  of  Voung  Girls,  League  for  i  «e,  II,. 

Pugh,  Miss  Esther,  120;  Mi <s Sarah,  322. 

Pundita  Hnmabai    Sarasvati.    (See  Kainabai.) 

Purvis,  Harr  et,  150;  Robert,  17,  47:  Remi- 
niscences of.  342  -3  1  \._ 

Putnam,  Caroll»e  A.,  17. 

Pythagoras,  420. 

Q. 
Quarterly  Review,  Oberlin,  841. 

Queen  of  Italy,  209,  210,  214. 

Quetp  stand,  183. 

Qutnton,    Mrs.   Amelia   S.,    13,   19:  Report  of 

Women's  National  Indian  Association,  100- 

101. 

R. 
Railroad  Rates  for  Council,  Committee  on.  155, 

456. 
Ralph,  Mary,  12. 
Ramabai   Sarasvati,  Pundita,   12,  27,  44,  86, 

255  ;  Address,  The  Women  of  India,  03-07. 
Raphael,  Clara,  898. 
Rwsegna  dtgli   Interessi   Femminili  (Review  of. 

Women's  Interests),  214. 
Reach  tbe  Children,    How   to,  by  Miss  Anna 

Gordon.  13,  188-119. 
Reading  Clubs,  Women's,  44  , . 
liebekah.  Daughters  of,  4  17. 
Reception,  The  Public,  23. 
Red  Cross,  The,  13.  49,  352  ;  In  Denmark.  394  : 

Address  on.  by  Miss  <  lara  Barton,  103-107. 
Reforms,    the    Outgrowths   of     the    Woman 

Suffrage  Agitation,  3  l. 
Regulationists,  The.  256. 
Held,  Clementine,  183. 
Relief  Corps  of  the  G.  A.  R.,  Woman's.    (See 

Grand  Army.) 
Keligious— Service,     11.    24-29,     Symposium, 

loo- 125  :  Truths  which  can  be  Established  by 

Science,   lo,     1  15. 
Republic,   The,    128,   107;    Battle   Hymn  of, 

189. 
Republican  Party,  The,  307   308,  309,  339. 
Republican,  Tin  Springfield,  307. 
Revolution,  The,  86. 

Revolution,  146,  15  1.  164  :  The  French,  145. 
Rhode  Island,  131.  107,  364. 
Rich,  The  Neglected,  Address  by  Frances  El- 
len Harper.  119-120. 
Ri' hards,  Mrs.  Emily  S.,  13,  49;  Reports  of , 

107-109,  455  '.lane,  mistake  for  Emily). 
Richardson,   Mrs.  Victoria  M ..   13,49,50,449; 

Report  of,  88  :  Maria,  289. 
Richer.  Leon,  BO. 
Riga  202. 

Riggs  House.  The,  241.  315,  1  Is.  1  19,  455.  157. 
Rights  of  Women,  Property.  132.    (Sec  Legal 

( Condition".) 
Rigsdag.  The,  203,  205. 
Rixford,  Sallie  M.,  456. 
R  bespterre,  145. 


Index. 


469 


Robinson.  Mrs.  Harriet  H.,  16,  22,  159,162, 
386,  168;  Address  of,  806-809;  W.  8.  (War- 
rington), 807  :   I  eila  J.,  170,  177. 

Rochdale,  l  52,  163. 

Rochester,  327. 

Rovers,  Mrs.  Can  dine  Gilkey,  456;  Hon.  Henry 
Wade,  17  4;  Dr.  Seth  and  Anna, 468. 

Rogstad,  Miss  Anna.  158. 

Roland,  Madame,  33. 

Romanes,  Professor,  876. 

Home,  91,  180,  181,  190,  209.  210.  26S. 

Rose,  Ernestine  L.,  189,  355,  357  ;  Extracts 
from  Addre  s.  368-860. 

Rowsing,  Mrs.,  208. 

Russell,  Hon.  Charles T.,  176. 

Russell,  Harriet W.,  12;  Penelope.  168 ;  Mr., 9. 

Russia.  153,  178,  180,  262,  388,  3b9,  391,  429, 
482,  438,  440. 

Russian,  262. 


Salazaro,  Fanny  Zampini,  15,  458  ;  Paper,  The 

Women  of  Italy,  208-214. 
Salisbury,  Lor  •.  37,  384. 
Sand.  George,  255. 
Sargent,  Mrs.  Ellen  Clark,  455  ;  Dr.  Elizabeth, 

13. 

Saxon,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Lisle,  16,  453,  457  ;  Ad- 
dress, The  Truth  Shall  Make  You  Free.  248- 
252. 

Sayles,  Mrs.  Lita  Harney,  1  1,  50,  1  18  ;  Address. 
Co-operation,  the  Law  of  the  New  Civiliza- 
tion. 152  168. 

Bcatcherd,  Mrs.  Alice  (Mrs.  Oliver),  9,  15,  10, 
1  1.  15,  19,  50,  I  is,  119:  Address,  Legal  «  on- 
ditlonsot  Women  In  the  Three  Kingdoms, 
229-237. 

School  Suffrage,  107;  In  England.  383;  In 
Massachusetts.  ■_'!•-!;   by  Mrs.  Everett,  309- 

31  1. 

Bchu  idt,  Auguste,  219. 
Scbroeder.  Mr.,  207. 
Bchurz,  Carl,  368 
Science,  Medical,  170. 
Scotland,  9,  30,  232 
Scudder,  Eliza,  21. 
Selden.  .Indue,  300. 
Self-Respect  of  Women.  350. 
Seneca   Kalis  Convention.   322,324,327,328, 
331,  330.  889,  848,  352.  307.    132. 

Sentinel,  The,  255. 

Serao,  Mathllde,  210. 

Servants.  B«  periences  of,  201,202. 

Severance,    Mrs.  Caroline  M.,   272,  339,   342; 

Lettered,  866. 
Bewail,  May  Wright,  10,  11,  12,   15,    lis.    1  19, 

450;  Address.  Higher  Education  of  Women 

in  the  r.  8.,  51-63;  Organization,  220-222; 

Presentation  at  Pioneers'  Session.  860-861. 
Bewail,    Dr.  Lucy,  97;  Hon.  Samuel   E.,  356; 

Letter  of,  359. 
Seward,  Mrs.,  325. 

Sex  in  Brain,  by  Helen  Gardener.  369-382. 
Seymour,  Miss  Mary  l'..  155,  157. 
Shanghai.  262. 
Shattuck,   Mrs.  Harriett*   R.,   13,  16,  83,  89, 

35<),  450,  457  ;  Address  on  Social  Purity,  270 

278 
Shawj  Rev.  Annie  H.,  11,  12.  14.51,  129,  181, 

35 1  ;  Sermon  of,  24-29;   Voting  for  School 

Committee  in  Massachusetts,  311-313. 
Shay,  Mrs..  173:  M.  B.  H.,  175. 
Shedden,  Arabella,  1  ,  s. 
Sheldon,  Miss  Ellen  H.,  11,  450. 
Shepherd.  Mrs.  Hannah  MeL.,  106. 
Shortridg".  Mrs.  S.  E.,  460. 
Siberia.  202   392,   132. 
■^tfjuul,  The,  188. 
Simon,  Jules,  259. 


Sinaitic  Codex.  402. 

Shiga i  ore.  262. 

Slavery,  248. 

Smith,  Gerritt.  275,  280,  349;  Hannah  Whit- 
all,  13,  49,  4  18;  Address,  The  Latest  Evolu- 
tion of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  114-116;  Sarah  M., 
157  :  Sidney,  51. 

Sniithsen,  Lucy,  43. 

Snow,  Georgie.  456. 

Social  Purity.  Session  for  Women  Alone,  16, 
246-291  ;  Ab  lition  of  Government  Regula- 
tion of  Vice,  York  Rranch  of  the  Society  f<  r, 
Letter,  289;  Abolition  Societv  (Leeds),  260; 
Addr.  ss  of  Mrs.  Hoffman,  283-284 ;  Age  of 
Consent,  256,  290 ;  Bad  Houses  in  the  Coun- 
try, 269:  Blue  Book,  266;  Children  Out- 
raged, 263  ;  Edinburgh  Branch  of  the  Feder- 
ation for  the  Repe-l  of  the  State  Regulat  on 
of  Vice,  49  ;  Girl  throws  herself  off  London 
Bridge,  271;  Increase  of  Defectives,  275; 
Incident  of  Girl  taken  to  Fiance.  267  ;  Li- 
censed House  in  Antwerp,  268;  Marriage, 
27  1.  277,  284;  Marriage  Reform,  284  285; 
Member  of  Parliament  desires  Age  of  Con- 
sent Lowered,  266;  Norway,  281;  Rescue 
Work,  274;  Round  Dances,  287;  Putting 
Criminal  Law  in  Force,  209 ;  The  Starting 
Point,  by  Dr.  Caroline  B.  Wlnslow,  273-275  ; 
Self-Rp-pcct.  287  ;  Women  attending  meet- 
ings veiled.  205 

Socialists,  Hit.  430. 

Sociologic  Society  of  America,  14, 50, 140, 152, 
153. 

Socra  es  165,  181. 

Som   rset  Club,  447. 

Somerville,  Mary,  73,  268. 

Sot  sis,  15,  60,  2 is,  225,  367;  Report  of,  215. 

South  Carolina,  181. 

Southport,  229, 

South  wick,     Anbv,    322,    356;    Jos  ph,    329; 

Sarah  H.,  17.337:  Thankful,  829. 
S->Uth worth,  Mrs.  Louisa.  157. 
Sorenson.  Rev.  C.  200. 
Spain,  153,  lso.  259. 
Spear,  Catharine  Swan,  17. 
Spencer.  Herbert,  375.  406. 
Sperrv.  Han   ah  H.,  456,  457. 
Spit/.ka,  Dr.  E.  C  ,  372  ;  L  tier  of,  381-382. 
Spotlord.  Mr.  C.  w„  153  ;  Mrs.  Jane  H.,  10,  11, 

23,  123.  153.    15  1,   150. 
Spurzheim,  380. 
St.  Lout*,  255. 
St.  *'e  e-shunr.  202,  266. 
Stamp  Ait,  168. 

Stanton,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady.  9, 10,  11,  12,  17, 
is,  31.3  1.  IO.  17,250  327,320,  33  1.3  10,3  13, 
350,35:?.  35  I.  300.  3C.O,  881,  39S.  489,  HO, 
111.  153.  150;  Address  of  Welcome,  31-39; 
Reminiscences.  322-325;  Closing  Address, 
131-488. 
Stanton.  Ho  rv  B.,  356;  Mr.  and  M>-s.  Theo- 
dore. 9  ;  Theodore,  41  ;  Letter  of,  445-446. 
Stanford,  Mrs.  Leland,    155,  468;  Senator  Le- 

>and,  468. 
State  Fnir  Association,  Women's,  447. 
State  Regulation   of    Vice,   234.    (See   Social 

Purity.) 
Statist  08  of  Criminals,  Male  and  Female,  181. 
Stead.  William  P.,  256,  2e;5,  266. 
Stearns.  Mrs.  Sarah  Burger,  468. 
Stebbins,  Catharine  A.  F„  17,  327. 
Steer,  Miss,  270. 
Stepniak,  432. 
Stenius,  Mrs.,  390,  391. 
Sternberg,  Count  Fngern,  259. 
Stevenson,  Dr.  Sarah  Hackett,  14 ;  Address, 

Woman  in  Medicine,  169-173. 
Steward,  Mrs.,  40, 257. 
Stewart,  Alvin,  349. 


470 


International  Council  of  Women. 


Stone,  Mrs.  Lucy,  15,  17,  32,46,47,75,189, 
334,  338,  340,  341,  343,  354,  357,  300,  366, 
398,  448 ;  Address,  on  Legal  Conditions,  241- 
245 ;  The  Advance  in  Fifty  Years,  331- 
335. 

Stone,  Catharine,  42 ;  Chief  Justice,  176. 

Storthing,  The,  (Norway),  280. 

Stowell,  Mrs.  Louisa  Reed,  12,  49,  457;  Ad- 
dress, Retrospection,  72-75. 

Stowe,  Harriet  Keecher,  440. 

Stuart.  Elizabeth  G..  18;  The  Power  of 
Thought,  420 ;  Professor,  254,  259. 

Studies  at  Home,  Society  to  Encourage,  447. 

Students,  Association  (Denmark),  447. 

Sturge,  Emily  and  Helen  M  ,  42  ;  Joseph,  322. 

Subordinate  Position  of  Women,  33. 

Suffrage,  Universal,  387  ;  School,  16,  34,  309- 
313;  Municipal,  16,  34,  315-318;  Kansas 
Equal  Suffrage  Association,  129;  Woman 
Suffrage  Association  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, 123.  (Sec  Woman  Suffrage,  Political 
Conditions,  American  W.  S.  A.,  National  W. 
S.  A.,  etc.) 

Sumner,  Charles,  302,  307,  349. 

Sunderland,  Rev.,  •">  17. 

Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  174. 

Surgerv,  173. 

Suez,  262. 

Swiss  Schools,  220. 

Switzerland,  171,  179,  259,  262. 

Sweden,  178,  205,  217,  269,  394. 

Swedenborg-,  Brain  of,  404. 

Symonds,  Mrs.  Tunie  H.,  456. 

T. 

Table,  The  (London),  407. 

Talmage,  Rev.  T.  DeWitt,  Letter  of,  441-442. 

Tanner,  Sarah  Jane,  42. 

Tappan,  338. 

Taylor.  Mrs.  Peter  (Mentis),  9,  344,  458  ;  Emily 
Winslow,  17;  Helen.  9. 

Temple,  The  Temperance,  by  Mrs.  Matilda  B. 
Carse,  125-127. 

Temperance,  18,49;  Session  of,  83-128:  Brit- 
ish Woman's  Temperance  Association,  49, 
116 ;  Children's  Work,  18,  118-119,127.  128; 
Edinburgh  Association.  19;  Headquarters, 
L26,  126;  National  Temperance  Hospital, 
123-125;  London  Temperance  Hospital,  124; 
Liquor  traffic,  1 19;  Loyal  Legions,  118,  126: 
Mottoes,  110;  National  Temperance  Hospital 
and  Medical  College  Association,  lit ;  Peti- 
tions. 1 15.  116;  In  the  South.  Ill;  Unions,  10; 
White  Ribbon.  1  1<>.  111.  114,118;  World's 
Temperance  Convention,  841;  World's  W. 
T.  U..  114-116;  Woman's  Crusade.  110. 

Tennessee.  131, 

Testman,  Miss  Caroline,  203. 

Texas,  157.  168,  282. 

Theodoret,  404, 

Theolojrv.  Meadville  School,  86. 

Thomas,  Rev.  Abel  ( '..  161.  162  :  Annie,  42; 
Mrs.  M.  Louise.  15.  50,  161,  102.  223.  448, 
449;  Address  of,  215-217;  Dr.  Mary  F.,  366 ; 
Letter  of.  .-502-363. 

Thomasson,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  P.,  9,  41. 

Thompson.  Elizabeth,  455. 

Thomson,  M.  Adeline,  17,  352,  455. 

Thoreson,  Cecilia.  279. 

Tiburtius,  Dr.  Franziska,  97 ;  Dr.  Henriette, 
458. 

Tiffany,  Amanda  C.  157. 

Timothee,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  168. 

Tischendorf.  402. 

Tod,  Miss  Isabella  M.,  9,  41,  445. 

Tome.  James  A.,  340. 

Topelius.  -v.)_. 

Topinard.  374. 

Toronto,  116.    (See  Canada.) 


Trades,  Women  in  the,  by  Helen  Campbell,  14, 

146-152. 
Traffic  in  Women  for  Prostitution,  262. 
Travelers'  Aid  Society,  203.  266,  272. 
Tribune,  The  (New  Fork),  168,  339,  347,  353. 
Tribune,   The   Woman's,  36,  188,  357,  425,  118, 

455. 
Truth,  Sojourner,  417. 
Trvgg,  Mis*  Alii,  18 ;  Farewell,  425-427. 
Tschita.  262. 
Turin.  178,  211. 
Turntr,  Margaret  A.,  41,  42. 

U. 

Union  Signal,  The,  188. 

Union,  The  German  Women's.  219  ;  The  Lette, 
220;  Industrial  and  Educational,  15,  5»>, 
198-200,  272. 

Unitarian,  181 ;  American  Association,  84,  85, 
86;  Post-Office  Mission,  85.  sw ;  Women's 
Work,  13,  83-86,  88,89;  Women's  Auxiliary 
Conference.  13,  86;  Western  Women's  Con- 
ference, 13,  88;  Women  as  Ministers.  86,  88. 

United  States,  30,  51,  117,  124,  128,  130.  135, 
173,  184,265,382,411. 

Universities,  Boston,  170;  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  217;  Columbian,  174;  Copenhagen, 
179,  206,  393  ;  Cornell,  77,  79;  Georgetown, 
174  ;  Harvard,  52,  60, 174  ;  Helsingfors  (Fin- 
land), 389.  390  :  Iowa,  175;  Johns  Hopkins, 
60,  78,  79,  166,  107  ;  of  Italy,  178;  of  Lon- 
don, 97  ;  of  Michigan.  12,  59,  00,  179  ;  North- 
western, 12.  100  ;  Royal  (of  Ireland).  97,  1  15  ; 
Syracuse,  :'>I7:  Wesleyan,  79;  Yale,  174; 
Contemplated  University  for  Gernu.n  Wo- 
men. 220. 

Universalis!  Church,  181;  Women's  Centen- 
narv  Association  of,  19. 

Utah,  Women's  Association  of,  13,  10,  49,  107- 
109,  171. 

V. 

Valparaiso,  262. 

Van  Buren,  389. 

Vander  Vooit,  Paul.  102. 

Vandals.  201. 

Vatican  Codex,  402. 

Vaughn.  Mary  C,  360. 

Venaing,  Emma,  42. 

Venice,  21 1 . 

Vice.    (See  Legalized.) 

Victoria.  Empress  of  Germany.  286,  304,  153. 

Victoria,  Queen  of  England,  488. 

Vienna,  185. 

Vigilance  Association.  National  (England),  16, 
56  ;  Letters  from.  289-291. 

Vigilance  Council,  267. 

Villa,  Tommaso,  212. 

Vincent,  M.  Dupuis,  Letter  of.  143-1 1  1. 

Virginia.  131,  :5:>7. 

Viroqua,  Princess,  211. 
w. 

Wages  of  Women,  301 . 

Watte,  Catharine  V.,  17,  170,  177. 

Wall.  Sarah  E..  17. 

Wallace.  Mrs.  Zerelda  G.,  13,  18,  459  ;  Address 
on  Moral  Power  of  the  Ballot,  428-430 ;  Al- 
fred Russell,  418. 

Wanzer,  Dr.  Lucy  M.  P.,  18, 

Warner.  Esther  L.,  14;  Address,  Women  as 
Farmers,  166-169. 

Washington,  George,  311,  366;  Washington 
City,  10,  133,  255  ;  Territory,  174,  177.  339, 
485,  442. 

Wattles,  Esther.  17  :  Susan  E.,  17. 

Waugh,  Catharine  G..  175. 

Webb,  Deborah,  43  ;  Wilhelmina,  42. 

Webster,  Brain  of,  381. 

Wecker,  Johanna  Frederica.  46. 


Index. 


471 


Weld,  Theodore,  350 ;  Letter  of,  360-362. 

Wells,  Mrs.  Kate  Gannett,  '272. 

Wellstood,  Jennie  M.,  2(54. 

Wendt,  Mathilde  P.,  368. 

Wesley,  404 

Wetfmmslt  r  Iit-rieiv,  339. 

WhiH-s,  319,  338,  389. 

White,  Armenia  S.,  356. 

White,  Blanco.  Sonnet,  417. 

White  Cross  Association,  etc.,  256,  257,  318, 

406. 
White  Ribbon,  257.    (Se^  Temperance.) 
White  Slave  Trade,  251,   257-264,   266,   267, 

268,  291. 
Whit  ncv.  Anne,  134. 
Whit  tier,  John   G.,  1!).  20,  113,  289,322,  354, 

366;  Letter  of,  868-359. 
Whittle,  Dr.  and  Mr*.  Ewing,  9,  458. 
Wife,  supported,  243;  Earnings  of,  228,231, 

243;  Wife  Beaters,  235;  Wife's  Property  in 

New  Fork,  325. 
Wigham,  Miss  Eliza,  9,41,264,  344;  Hannah 

Maria,  42. 
Wllbour,  Mrs.  Charlotte  B.,  9;  Letter  of,  367- 

368. 
Wilbur,  Julia  A  ,  17. 
Wilcox,  Albert  O.,  17.  352. 
Willard,  Mrs.  Emma  (Troy),  51,52,56,59,  167; 

Mrs.  Mary  B.,  116,  188. 
Willard,  Frances  E„  13,  15,  16,  18,47,  49,50, 

77.  1 1 4,  1  25,  1 86, 187,  257,  305,  351,  422,  448, 

Hit.  453;  Addresses,   on   Organization,  222- 

22  1;   Social  Purity,  286-289;  Temperance, 

110-3  1  I  ;  Woman  Suffrage,  319-321;  in  the 

Religious  Symposium,  422-42  1. 
William.  Emperor  of  Germany,  305. 
Williams,  Mary  Hamilton,  455. 
Willing,  Jennie  Fowler,  13;  Addres?,  Woman 

as  Missionary,  86  s*. 
Willis,  Sarah  H..  17,  327. 
Wilson,  Hon.  Henry. I..  255. 
Winslow.  Dr.  Caroline  B.,  16,  17.256,  352;  Ad- 
dress, The  Starting  Point,  273  275 ;  Emily, 

:;•_>•_>,  338. 
Winter,  Aloise,  219. 
Wisconsin,  1,1. 
Wise,  Ella,  456. 
Woman  Question,  The,  256. 
Woman  Suffrage,  The  History  of,   (by  Mes- 

dames  Stanton.  Anthony,  and  Gage),  35, 169, 

329,356,368;   Associations   (see   American. 

National,  Norwegian,  Suffrage,  etc.);  Vote  of 

Audience  Upon,  360;  Movement.  327. 

Woman  Suffrage  Conventions,  L82;  Cleveland, 

366;  Massilon,  3<>»>;  Mount  Vernon.  3(>(>; 
Newport.  137;  New  York.  31:  Syracuse, 
;;<;»>:  Worcester,  339.  (See  Seneca  falls ;  see 
also  Women's  Suffrage.) 

Womanliness,  157. 
Womanly  Women.  247. 


Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  13, 14, 
16,  122,  188,  272,  289,  395. 

"  Woman's  Congress,"  218. 

Woman's  Condition  in  Italy,  by  Fanny  Zam- 
pini  Salazaro,  208-214. 

Woman's  Influence  in  Law,  177. 

Wotnan's  Journal,  The,  36,  357. 

Woman's  Bights  Society,  Norway,  280. 

Woman's  Bights,  206. 

Woman's  Temperance  Publication  Associa- 
tion, 186-188. 

Woman!1*  Tribune,  The.    (See  Tribune.) 

Women  on  the  Jury,  244. 

Women  to  Stand  by  Women,  261. 

Women's  Liberal  Associations,  229,  385. 

Women's  Belief  Associations,  49, 107;  Primary 
Associations,  49,  108 ;  Property  Bights 
Among  Indians,  239. 

Women's  Suffrage,  British  National  Society 
for,  447 ;  Edinburgh  National  Society  for, 
15,  16,  49,  229;  Glasgow  Association  for, 
49;  Norwegian  Women's  Suffrage  Associa- 
tion, 49. 

Wood,  Dr.  Ruth  M.,  16,  352. 

Wolcott,  Dr.  Laura  Boss,  458. 

Wolfe,  Miss,  31 ;  5. 

Wolstonecraft,  Mary,  33,  51,  52, 384, 393. 

Woodhall,  Mr.,  384. 

Worcester,  132,172;  County  (Massachusetts), 
242. 

Worden,  Mrs.  Anna  M.,  14,  50 ;  Address, 
Women  In  the  Grange,  137-142. 

Working  Women  of  To-day,  by  Helen  Camp- 
bell, 140-151. 

Working  Women's  National  Beneficial  Fund, 
155. 

Work'ng  Women's  Guild,  218. 

World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  322. 

Worm,  Miss  Paul  ne,  393. 

Worm,  The,  Developing  into  the  Insect,  417. 

Wright,  Hon.  Carroll  D.,  135;  Elizur,  338; 
Fiances  E.,  33, 35(i ;  Mrs.  Martha  C,  36,  322, 
323.  324,  825. 

Wyoming,  175, 177,  339,  435,  442. 


Yate«,  Dr.  Elizabeth  43. 

Yorkshire,  229. 

Young  Woman's  Christian  Association,  203 ; 
of  England,  266. 

Young  Ladies'  Mutual  Improvement  Associa- 
tion, 49,  108. 

Z. 

Zahle,  Miss  Nathalie,  207, 89  I. 
Zakr/.ewskH,  Dr.  Marie  E.,  46,  95,  96. 
Zanardelli,  Giuseppe,  212. 
Zeuger,  Mrs.,  H>s. 
Eon  Marcello,  Countess,  211. 
Zurich,  179. 


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